Homecoming
by psychicbunny
Summary: Though she had accepted his apology while her emotions ran high on the battlefield, she wasn't sure if she really had. Could someone like him ever be forgiven? Trusted again? [SasuSaku]
1. Consideration

A/N: This fic is set after the Fourth Shinobi World War. While details of events may differ a bit from what was presented in the series, I've kept major plot points consistent. I've set the rating at T for now, though it may go up to M in the future. I hope people enjoy this!

* * *

 **Homecoming**

– Chapter 1 –

 _Consideration_

* * *

 _I got to do things my own way darling_ _  
_ _Will you ever let me_ _  
_ _Will you ever respect me? No_ _  
_ _Do things my own way darling_ _  
_ _You should just let me_ _  
_ _Why you ain't ever let me grow?_

* * *

Sakura leaned back into her chair and took a long look around the administration offices. Most days before Pain's assault, she spotted at least a handful of people goofing off, hanging around the water cooler chatting with their co-workers as they prepared yet another cup of tea. But not today. It was quiet in the office save the sound of scribbles, the rhythmic _tap tap tap_ of people typing, and the occasional cough. With everything that had happened, there was a lot of paperwork to catch up on; a lot of authorizations to be dispensed regarding logistics of supplies, a lot of patient files to be updated, a lot of incidents to document. Everyone was hard at work. Not only was it Friday afternoon so everyone was trying to finish their work as quickly as possible to get home earlier, but it was a refreshing return to normal after a year of sheer absurdity. They had somehow managed to survive.

She stretched her arms above her before stretching her neck right, left, and all around. She carefully rolled her shoulders, feeling the clicks of the joints. She had only recently recovered from her injuries. While Naruto bounced back in a few days, one of the pluses of being a jinchūriki and having that special Uzumaki chakra, minus an arm, her healing took about a month. Even with that time, many parts of her body still didn't feel quite right and wouldn't go back to normal for months or the better part of a year.

Sakura swivelled her chair around so she could see the clock on the wall. 1:30 pm. It was time for Sasuke's daily check-up, followed by some time down at the hospital to plan for the children's mental health clinic, then training, before she could go home. With a yawn and a last stretch, she stood up and began packing her bag. While most of the files on her desk were in her outbox, there were still a few in her inbox. She wasn't done with all of her work, so she'd have to take some home and finish them in the evening. She picked those manila folders up and flipped through them. An approval for purchasing antibiotics to be distributed at a clinic serving mostly refugees from the Land of Lightning, another approval for purchasing various sedatives for use at the main hospital, and a status update on Uchiha Sasuke's physical condition. At least two of them were easy, and the third was one that she was about to do anyhow.

Zipping up her bag, she smiled and nodded at Koetsu and Megumi, whose desks were next to hers. They smiled back and waved goodbye, softly whispering " _see you after the weekend!"_ She walked through the office as quietly and quickly as she could. A few more of her co-workers murmured their goodbyes, but most were too absorbed in their work to notice her exit.

It was a beautiful day outside; one of the downsides of working indoors so much was that she and her co-workers often missed these sorts of days. The winter sun was out, shining as brightly as it could. The air had a slight bite to it, causing Sakura to wrap her jacket a little tighter, but she wasn't uncomfortable. Hopefully by the time she got around to training, it wouldn't be too cold. Life in Konoha was beginning to bustle again as it had before Pain's attack. The dango shop was popular, though the little bright little blue flags at the entrance had recently been changed because the older ones had become too faded. Ichiraku started selling instant ramen, and Sakura hadn't made up her mind whether or not that was a good thing. Naruto's midnight visits to rummage through her fridge had sharply dropped off, but she wasn't sure that his ramen replacement was good for his health. She also missed his drop-ins and the heart-to-heart conversations they would have until the early hours of the morning. Then again, Ichiraku's instant ramen wasn't the main reason why his late-night visits had sharply curtailed. He spent much of his free time with Sasuke now.

As she walked to the makeshift Intelligence Division building, she thought about why she was going there. Uchiha Sasuke. He had been imprisoned there for the last month, and he'd probably remain imprisoned there for many months to come. Naruto told her that he had been a model prisoner, cooperating with Morino Ibiki's team and sharing valuable information he had learned in his years of travel, never causing a fuss.

While the trust between Sasuke and Naruto had never faded, not one iota, Sakura wasn't sure where she sat with Sasuke and what place Sasuke had in her heart. When he first reappeared and stated his intention of helping to protect Konoha, she had been suspicious. She was _still_ suspicious. His response to her begging was to knock her out and to dismiss her loyalty and love as figments of a failed past. He later apologized for causing her so much pain, and though she accepted his apology while her emotions ran high on the battlefield, she wasn't sure if she really had. Could someone like him ever be forgiven? Trusted again? Naruto seemed to think so, but again, his trust in Sasuke had never wavered. Kakashi increasingly seemed to think so too.

Sakura knew better. Men promising to change was very different from men actually changing. From what she had seen, Sasuke had changed very little. He was no longer baying for blood and the collapse of Konoha, but he still had that same arrogance and disdain for the feelings of others that led him down his path of vengeance in the first place. It was his arrogance that allowed him to so foolishly announce his intention of becoming a kage and make a unilateral decision regarding the tailed beasts; thank the gods Naruto was compassionate enough to recognize that that was not a decision for any one man and strong enough to stop Sasuke. It was Sasuke's disdain for others that led him to expect others to forgive him after everything he had done to them—which was often times him attempting to kill or leave those who cared for him for dead. Sakura had been at the receiving end of that one time too many. He spoke of changing the world, but he had yet to change himself.

As she reached the front gate, she checked her watch. 1:57 pm. The ANBU guards gave her the once-over before allowing her through. She saw Ibiki's large, imposing frame lingering behind the glass doors. He was watching her walk towards the building. She wondered what he thought of Sasuke's lenient imprisonment arrangements, with her coming around every day to heal Sasuke and Naruto coming to visit every evening. Some thought of Sasuke as a war hero, while others remembered his betrayal. Ibiki never gave an indication which he agreed with, only that he would faithfully follow the Hokage's orders.

Sakura sighed before she reached the front doors. She only hoped that Kakashi and Naruto would make the right call about Sasuke. Ibiki let her into the building, a faint smile on his lips, and she gathered her nerves before she was to see a man who reminded her of a boy for whom she once would have sacrificed everything.

* * *

Sasuke looked away from the spider on the ceiling when he heard the heavy metal doors of the elevator scrape open and bang shut. The spider was positioned in quadrant one, three tiles to the right and two tiles up. He immediately looked towards the clock that flashed the time in big, red numbers. 2:00 pm. She was here every day at the same time. She who reminded him of a girl he once protected with everything he had, except that she had changed and wasn't that girl anymore.

He swung his legs off of his bed so that he was sitting. His cell was tidy and surprisingly well-furnished: a bed, a desk, a chair, a shelf with a few books that he had yet to touch, and a lamp were all provided. If he so desired, he could request for pen and paper from the ANBU guards who silently kept watch over him. He supposed that this was all Naruto's doing, having successfully convinced their ex-teacher that he was no threat. He watched her walk down the dark hallway towards him. Overhead, Morino Ibiki entered the observation box.

She had changed, and the feelings she evoked in him changed too. He smelled that she had changed her shampoo so that she no longer used the same kind as Kakashi's one dog. He saw that her physicality had changed with her increased training: whereas she used to walk in a shy, hesitant way common to many young girls who had been told by the world that they were not enough, she now carried herself with confidence and strength. He felt the change in her power when she healed him on the battlefield. Her chakra control was now perfect, and in minutes she completed complex procedures that took other medics hours. Where he once felt protectiveness, he now felt guilt. She didn't need anyone protecting her anymore; she only needed others to not hurt her, which was something he hadn't been so good at doing. And where others created hurt, she healed.

She stopped when she reached the edge of his room. One of the ANBU guards, the one with the cat mask, lowered the barrier encasing his room, allowing her through. "How are you feeling today, Sasuke-kun?" she asked with a smile. Behind her, another ANBU guard with a bird mask raised the barrier back up. Though she still addressed him in the same way, her voice had lost its sweetness. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, though he understood why that happened. They had grown up and left their childhood romanticizations behind. He hadn't been lying when he told Kakashi that there was no reason for them to love each other and that her love for him was a remnant of a failed past. Her love would not be his redemption.

Not that she was offering it anymore. Naruto welcomed him back with open arms and Kakashi greeted him with judgment that petered into a quiet understanding. In Sakura, he sensed wariness. While Naruto and Kakashi visited him at regular intervals, she only ever came for his daily check-ups. She never stayed beyond the ten or fifteen minutes needed to run the necessary checks, and she never said anything beyond polite small talk. What he learned of her life came from his own observations or Naruto's stream of consciousness.

He gave her a small smile. "Still healing."

She smiled at him again, though this smile was more forced. "Can I take a look at your left arm?" He angled his body towards her as she pulled the chair next to the bed. She pulled apart the folds of his clothing to reveal the stump that was now there. The skin was tight and pink with all sorts of ridges and crevices present. She bent down to analyze the skin closer. "You don't seem to be developing any hypertrophic scars, so that's good," she murmured. From the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw Ibiki watching them.

She was close to him, close enough that he smelled the rose and vanilla in her hair. Despite being an elite kunoichi, she maintained her feminine flourishes. She reached a glowing hand up to what remained of his left arm, her chakra warm and vibrating with vitality. "Do you mind?"

Even though she had been doing this every day for almost a month, she still asked every time. He supposed that this was the bedside manners trained medics learned to calm jumpy patients. "Go ahead," he told her. He felt her probe the end of his arm with her chakra. He felt her investigating the nerve endings, the state of his muscles, and the damage to the bone. And, oddly enough, this wasn't at all painful. It wasn't like when Karin's chakra filled his system, burning his whole body. If anything, it was soothing. "Your chakra…is very calming. It feels nice."

She smiled at him again, this time a genuine one. "Well that's good. If it wasn't, I imagine I'd stress my patients out more, which is no good." She withdrew her hand. "Your arm is healing well and there hasn't been much atrophy of the remaining tissue. We're in the process of developing a new prosthetic arm with full maneuverability. If we finish sometime soon, and if you so wish, we could install one for you."

"Hn." He was more concerned with his restricted use of chakra and his lack of training. At this rate, he was going to be very rusty and of no use to Konoha. He began to lie back down into his bed in anticipation of the next part of his check-up routine.

"Do you need help lifting your shirt up?"

"No, I'm fine," he responded, still as fiercely independent as ever. He struggled with his shirt longer than necessary, but he eventually got it all the way up. As he lay down, Sakura sighed in her head. He had always been very attractive, but now as a young man he was devastatingly handsome. His faint six-pack, which was an eight-pack earlier in the month, was a testament to his rigorous training. His broad shoulders tapered down into a narrow waist. Every inch of him was strong, supple muscle. Too bad he was such a cold fish; the gods had a funny sense of humor. She gently placed a hand on his abdomen and began probing.

Major organs, check. Muscular-skeletal system, check. Chakra pathways, check. Chakra blocks that she had applied to limit his access to his chakra reserves, check. He had healed up well in the last month, which surprised her. Wanderers like him typically wilted in confined spaces like this, but he had managed to survive. Maybe he truly wanted to be back here? Maybe she needed to have a bit more compassion for him. For most of his life, he existed neither here nor there with only a single goal focusing him. But that did not excuse him from the crimes he committed, and now that he had met that goal and more, what did he want?

She drew her hand back, the green glow of her chakra fading away. "You're all healed up," she told him. "Not quite as quickly as Naruto, but just as well."

He smirked ever so slightly and she swore she almost heard him chuckle. "I'm sure Naruto will be glad to hear that there's at least one way he beats me, hands—or rather, hand—down."

She gave him another smile. Did she normally smile this much at her patients? Bedside manners, she told herself. "If you can give me a minute? I have to take a few notes." She pulled a manila file and pen out of her bag and began jotting down some observations. The patient's chakra reserves were large and had replenished with surprising speed, and it seemed that they helped with his healing. He neither expressed interest nor rejected the idea of a prosthetic arm. At a later point in the future, his Rinnegan and the differences in chakra pathways and use from the Sharingan should be studied and mapped. She doubted Kakashi would read her notes, but perhaps when Naruto became Hokage she could nag him into tying Sasuke to a chair so she could study his bloodline limit.

A click of her pen signalled that she was done. Sasuke sat up in his bed again, pulling his shirt down. "Will you still be coming to check on me?"

Sakura shrugged. "I'm not sure. In terms of this official capacity, no, but Tsunade shishou and Kakashi-sensei may want me to continue running tests on you, whether to study your bloodline limit or to see if there's a way for us to let you train while keeping you on limited chakra access."

"Ah." An awkward silence stretched between them. Ibiki was still watching them like a hawk. After too many seconds, Sakura cleared her throat.

"I'll see you later, Sasuke-kun." She slid the file, his medical file, and pen back into her tote, one of those neat little packs that school children used because it was good for their backs. Why she used such a juvenile bag, he had no idea. Perhaps it was a current fashion that he had missed out on; perhaps it was a sign of how much her injuries were bothering her. Without saying anything else, she turned and left. The ANBU guard with the bird mask let her through. Sasuke watched her as she walked down the hallway and waited at the elevator. After a few seconds, the elevator pinged and she disappeared into them. Ibiki watched him for another minute before turning and leaving the observation box.

Sasuke took a deep breath and returned his attention to the spider on the ceiling that had crawled over to the right by a few centimeters. Four tiles to the right, two tiles up. The time was 2:12 pm according to the clock on the wall. His room fell back into silence. He was home, but not _home_. People didn't know whether or not they could trust him. She clearly thought he was back not because he loved her or Konoha. He was home because…well, why did he want to be back here?

* * *

Next chapter: _James Joint_


	2. James Joint

A/N: This chapter contains strong language and discussion of sex (but nothing beyond what you'd see in _Mean Girls_ ).

* * *

 **Homecoming**

– Chapter 2 –

 _James Joint_

* * *

 _Every time you kiss me  
Don't say that you miss me_ _  
_ _Just come get me_

* * *

Team bonding, Naruto called it. Sakura was just glad that Sai was too busy doing a favor for Ino that Ino concocted as an excuse to see him (not that he realized) and Kakashi was too busy using missions as excuses to dodge being Hokage. It was awkward enough as is. She didn't want to be here. Sasuke had finished healing months ago and she hadn't had another reason to go see him, so she didn't. She had other things to do, important and useful things, like missions, working at the hospital, training with Tsunade-shishou, and planning the children's mental health clinic that many of the children, refugee or Konoha-born, needed. Or relaxing things, like going out to brunch with Ino on Sundays, having a drunken blast of an eighteenth birthday, or being left alone with her overactive mind and stream of thoughts. She really wished she wasn't here, but Naruto showed up at the hospital to make sure she didn't bail last minute on this like she had with previous planned team bondings.

It was rather hard to bond with your childhood genin team when one of them ran off to chase dreams of power and revenge, the other ran off to train with a legendary pervert so that he could drag the first one back home, and you were left behind. For years later they would always battle one another and if she wasn't standing right between them, then she was passed out in a field away from their fight. It had always been about Naruto and Sasuke. They kissed each other first. They fought with each other the most. Whatever happened during that last battle drew the two boys right back together. They even lost complimentary arms. They had always orbited around one another, of course, but something happened on that battlefield that made the boys perfectly understand each other again. Sakura couldn't help feeling left out again as the weak and useless one. At the end, it was Naruto who convinced Sasuke to come back, not her. It was one big bromance and Sakura was the third wheel.

Her footsteps echoed throughout the hallway. Naruto was blabbing on about something while excitedly swinging a six-pack of beer in large archs with his left arm, but Sakura wasn't paying attention. Was it too late to back out? She really didn't want to do this. What was she supposed to say to Sasuke? 'Hi Sasuke, I've missed you. Let's pretend you never almost killed me a couple of times and that I tried to kill you too. By the way, how serious were you about your apology?' Naruto always maintained that she was special to Sasuke, that he had an affection for her that he had for no one else. Naruto would go on and on about how Sakura was always the first one Sasuke would acknowledge during their reunions, how she was the only one to calm Sasuke down, and how protective Sasuke was of her. Sakura wasn't so sure. Yes, at moments on that battlefield it felt like they were reconnecting, but all the signs of affection Naruto pointed to were from a long time ago. Unless "thank you" was his way of saying "I love you," he had a funny way of showing his supposed care for her. As a child, she rationalized his idiosyncrasies as the result of being a broken boy in pain and consumed by darkness; as an adult, thinking about what had happened made her _mad._

So many feelings in addition to anger that Sakura tried to let go over the years came bubbling back up to the surface. Inadequacy. Abandonment. Resentment. A lot of sadness too, though Sakura did her best to supress that one the most. And right now…anxiety. She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready to face Sasuke like this and she most certainly was not ready to face her feelings.

He was sitting at the table in one chair, with two other empty chairs pulled up to the table. Sakura realized that Naruto must've gotten clearance from Tsunade-shishou and Ibiki for this team bonding if there were two other chairs in his room. Of course he would have; for crying out loud, they were bringing in alcohol, which she wasn't sure how Naruto had gotten since he was underaged. Under florescent lighting, Sasuke looked even paler, which she hadn't thought was possible. He was still impossibly handsome, even under the harsh lighting, with how he carried himself; he radiated confidence and power. She shook her head. Now was not the time for these sort of thoughts, not when there were so many repressed emotions that she was being forced to process. Instead, she focused on the clock. 9:00 pm.

The ANBU guard with the monkey mask lowered the barrier, allowing them into Sasuke's confinement area. Naruto slammed the six-pack on the table. The glass bottles clinked against one another. She felt Sasuke watching her, and she chose to ignore it. Morino Ibiki watched from above, the exact expression on his face obscured by the reflectiveness of the panels of the observational box. She could only make out the two long scars across his face. "We can trust that you aren't going to bottle us and make a run for it, yeah?" Naruto asked, grinning, of Sasuke.

Sasuke's face barely changed as he maintained an appearance of aloofness, but Sakura saw the amusement in his eyes. "Hn." Naruto plopped down into the chair closest to Sasuke. Sakura quietly shuffled into the last remaining seat, across from Sasuke, and absentmindedly scratched her fingers and picked her nail polish. There were too many emotions running through her right now. Why was she even here? Naruto and Sasuke could bond in their bromance without her. This wasn't going to end well. She stopped scratching her fingers and began tugging on her left earlobe, where a small bruise was healing. The surprising tenderness of the bruise made her wince, and mentally she made a mental note to tell Tokuma to be less enthusiastic about covering her with hickies, if she ever saw him again.

Sasuke noticed her wince and slid his gaze to focus on her but said nothing. Sakura returned his eye contact for a moment before watching Naruto hold a bottle of beer between his thighs. He turned another bottle of beer upside down to wedge its cap underneath the first bottle's cap. The cap to the upright bottle of beer came off with an audible 'pop!' and skittered across the room. The beer fizzled and a thick layer of foam appeared at the top within seconds. Naruto handed it to her with a grin. "Ladies first!"

He repeated the process twice more until they each had a bottle of beer. Neither she nor Sasuke said anything to one another. Sasuke's focus shifted between her and Naruto. She thought that the bubbles at the top of her beer were quite interesting.

Naruto watched them, half of him feeing amused and the other half concerned. He was more observant than people gave him credit for. For one, the tension between his two original teammates was palpable and sliceable with a knife. Sakura was doing her best to avoid Sasuke's gaze—she looked like she was ready to bolt out of the room—which surprised Naruto. Half a year ago, she had put her everything into healing them and accepted Sasuke's apology. They embraced as a team, tear and smiles and laughter and all. But since then, Sakura had withdrawn. And Sasuke…

Naruto knew he cared for their pink-haired teammate. He always had, even if he had been terrible at admitting it to himself and showing it. Naruto saw it firsthand years ago at the hospital when Sakura hugged him. Admittedly, Naruto couldn't understand how the bastard thought: first he shredded Sakura's self-esteem, then he protected her and comforted her when she was distressed (and reached out to her when he needed comfort), then he abandoned her, then he tried to kill her, and then he apologized to her. How that pattern of behavior made sense, Naruto had no idea, but all that mattered now was that Sasuke was back. For real. And now that he had started coming round to admitting his mistakes and faults, Naruto knew it was only a matter of time he would admit to himself and to her how much she meant to him.

But was it a case of too little, too late? Did Naruto even want them to be together, given how Sasuke treated Sakura like shit for so many years? Sasuke had a rough life, but that was no excuse for treating Sakura, who never did anything other than pledge her love and loyalty to him, so poorly. If anything, his struggles and pain should have made him more compassionate towards others, but for as long as Naruto had known Sasuke there was that unyielding, self-righteous anger. Had he changed enough to deserve someone like Sakura? In their midnight heart-to-hearts, Sakura expressed doubt that someone like that could change, but Naruto didn't think that was who Sasuke was. He believed—no, he _knew_ —that any person is more than the accumulation of their mistakes and regrets, and Sasuke was a good guy, beneath all the mistakes. His heart was in the right place. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have apologized and come back willingly!

Silence and awkwardness blanketed the room. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura were inclined to be the first one to break the ice, so it was up to Naruto. He cleared his throat. "So, uh…it's been a while, hey?"

Silence. And then, "…idiot." Followed by a smirk and a swig of beer. Next to Naruto, Sakura tapped her beer bottle a few times before taking a sip of her beverage.

Naruto rolled his eyes. This was going to be like squeezing the last bit of toothpaste out of a tube. "What have you been up to? Well, obviously, we know what you've been up to, but…what's changed with you these last five years?"

Sasuke gave him a look that conveyed a message of _be more specific_. Naruto heaved a sigh and flopped into his chair. What did people normally talk about? The weather? Housing prices? The latest jutsu they developed? Naruto thought for a moment, blowing air down the neck of his bottle. "I don't know, man…I mean, you must've seen some interesting things in your journeys?"

"Hn. I saw a lot of things."

Sakura almost snorted at where the conversation was going. Sure, he saw a lot of things…when he wasn't busy trying to kill them or people they cared about.

"Like…?"

Sasuke smirked. "Haven't you already asked me that a dozen times this last month alone?" What happened next surprised Sakura: Sasuke took initiative and steered the conversation. "What's changed in Konoha?" he asked quietly.

Naruto sat up straight with a giant grin on his face. "Oh man, so much! Where do I even start?" Looking over at Sakura, his grin grew larger, emphasizing his fox-like appearance. "Well, this babe here—"and here Sakura gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder, "—got super strong. _Scary_ strong. You should've seen Kakashi-sensei's face the first time he saw her in action!"

Sasuke perked up at the mention of this detail. "Oh?"

"I just came back after spending a couple years with old man Jiraiya. Kakashi-sensei made us do the bell test again, and when he disappeared from the field she figured out where he'd gone and punched a crater into the ground! She totally caught him by surprise!"

Sasuke gave Sakura a small smirk, and she smiled as she took another sip of her beer. She wasn't smiling back at Sasuke, of course, but smiling at the memory. It was one of her favorite memories; Kakashi-sensei was shocked. The weakest link of Team 7, the neglected link, had flourished under Tsunade's tutelage. Naruto and Sasuke were now chatting about something else (something to do with how they got the bell from Kakashi and whether or not he was still reading _Icha Icha_ as Hokage, with Naruto doing most of the talking but Sasuke actually participating the conversation from time to time), which gave her time to think back more on that memory. It was the first time she felt vindicated. Her ambition and hard work had paid off. She and Naruto worked together seamlessly to get that damn bell, and it was also the moment that their friendship began in earnest. As tragic as the start of Team 7 had been, that moment was the beginning of a period of flourish for the team. Sai was then introduced, and as rocky as that start was because of how rude he was, she grew accustomed to his odd sense of humor and lack of tact and he learned to be more normal. Yamato-taichou was a steady leader for the team in Kakashi-sensei's absence. She fought and won battles she never dreamed possible, and she gained the respect of the very people who she had idolized earlier in life.

With a shake of her head, she tuned back into Naruto and Sasuke's conversation. She immediately regretted her decision because while she had been reminiscing about the past, Naruto had to be Naruto.

"Hey, how'd you lose your virginity?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

Sakura kept a straight face but groaned inwardly. She chose instead to watch the way the bubbles intermittently fizzled in her bottle of beer. The thick layer of froth that formed when the beer had been popped open was now a thin layer of bubbles. Why couldn't Naruto think a little more before he spoke? He always ran his mouth, and not in any witty or clever way; only in stupid, perverted ways that caused trouble. Before he became Hokage, he was going to need to learn how to place a damn filter between his brain and mouth so that his verbal diarrhea didn't come spewing out. His question was going to open up a can of worms; inevitably Sasuke was going to ask a question…

Sasuke's expression did not change much, but the surprise was clear in his eyes. After a few awkward moments of silence, he cleared his throat. "I haven't."

"Wait really? Seriously?" The judgment was clear in Naruto's voice. "I guess it's not like you had the time or the emotional capacity for a girlfriend. Though I thought you would've, you know, visited some sort of places…"

Sakura sighed and took another careful sip of her beer. Thinking about Sasuke's potential sex life was not her idea of fun. She stared at her bottle, noticing how condensation was forming all around its surfaces like sweat. The label was growing soft and pulpy. She began to pick at one corner with her thumbnail, attempting to remove not only the label but the sticky adhesive underneath it that still stuck onto the bottle despite her best efforts. She felt the label and the adhesive gathering under her nail, and the first thing she would do once she left this room would probably be to find a paperclip or something to clean her nails. She looked up at the clock. 9:20 pm. She needed to be here for another twenty-five minutes and then it'd be socially acceptable for her to leave.

Sasuke shrugged. "Those sorts of things aren't important to me." After yet another awkward moment of silent, during which he observed Sakura then Naruto with that creepily steady gaze of his, he asked his question. "What about you two?"

…like that, one that neither she nor Naruto wanted to answer.

Naruto genuinely seemed not to have anticipated the question because he had been taking a drink from his beer and choked. While Naruto bent over and coughed, loud enough that the ANBU guards shifted their stances to take a look as to what was going on, Sakura pursed her lips. She stared at the work she'd done on the bottle label, now missing two corners. She looked at Sasuke for a second, watched Naruto thump his chest a few times with a fist as he finished coughing, and returned to staring at the beer bottle with a sigh. The bubbles were almost completely gone. The ANBU guards, satisfied that nothing much was going on except Naruto being Naruto, resigned to their previous positions, their body language as formidable as ever.

Again, Sasuke's face didn't show any visible expression. His focus shifted between Sakura and Naruto several times before the proverbial light went off in his head and shone through his eyes. The tiniest frown appeared on his face. "Did you two…?"

Naruto cleared his throat, then cleared his throat again. He stared at the wall behind Sasuke and began shifting in his wooden chair, creating a rhythmic creaking sound that filled the room. "Well…"

Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before responding. It would be up to her to say, go figure. She was always the fixer-upper, in more ways than one, and she resented that. "Yes, Naruto and I were each other's first time."

"Ah." Sasuke kept his poker face, but Sakura detected surprise. This conversation was probably one he'd remember, because how often was it that Sasuke was repeatedly surprised in the space of a few minutes? He was staring at Naruto. Before he could ask anything else, Naruto interrupted. "But it was nothing! We were just, I dunno, curious! It didn't even feel good!"

A swell of pettiness rose in Sakura, one that she knew was in her but she tried her best to supress. Usually. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the stress of work, maybe it was how Naruto was always saving her ass and she was always cleaning up after his messes, maybe it was being thrown into the emotional tumbler of having Sasuke back and him apologizing for all that he did but she remembered—she didn't care to tamp down on this resentment. It rose and rose through her chest, through her heart, through her throat, ringing in her ears. She scowled at Naruto. "Oh really? Because from what I remember, we enjoyed it plenty, especially you."

Sasuke's gaze snapped back to her. She didn't care to try to understand what that meant. She was grabbing hold of her beer bottle so tight that she was surprised the glass hadn't cracked yet from the strength of her grip. Naruto stopped shifting in his chair and was now hunching over as though he was trying to disappear. "Th-that's not what I meant! I just meant that, you know? It was weird 'cuz you're like a sister to me, and afterwards we agreed that it was weird!" he declared with a nervous laugh.

Breathe Sakura, breathe, and count backwards from ten, she told herself. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look up towards the ceiling, tilting her chair onto its back legs. There was a spider on the ceiling busy wrapping up a fly that had somehow managed to get in. She saw that Ibiki was still in the observation box, though his back was now towards them and he seemed to be preoccupied with something else. Good. Naruto was still nervously laughing beside her, running his hand through his blond hair, and she felt Sasuke watching her with those scary, intense dark eyes.

Had that been worth it?

Midway through her backwards count, she shook her head. The front legs of her chair hit the ground with a muffled thump and this time, she took a large gulp from her beer. She slowly strained the beer through her front teeth and swallowed before addressing the boys again. Sakura really hoped that the ANBU stationed to keep watch over Sasuke would not report the content of their conversation back to Ibiki and Tsunade-shishou. "No one else knows about this, so if you two tell anyone else, _especially_ Ino, I will let you die on the battlefield next time you decide to save the world."

Sasuke carefully kept an aloof demeanor. Naruto made a face at her. "Why is it so bad for Ino to know that we lost our virginity to each other, huh?"

" _Because_ ," Sakura said with a roll of her eyes, "she'd tell everyone. And people think we as a team are fucked up enough as is. I don't want to give them any more reasons." Though she had sipped away only a quarter of her beer, she threw her head back and chugged the remaining three-quarters in a few seconds. Naruto stared at her, and Sasuke watched her with an unreadable look on his face. "Did the old lady teach you how to do that?" Naruto asked, apprehension drawing his voice to a higher pitch.

Sakura wiped her mouth on the back of her right hand and stood up to leave. "I'm tired, I was in the hospital all day today working with traumatized kids. I'm heading home. See you two later. Have fun, and remember to drink water in between the beers." She paused while the ANBU guard with the dog mask let her out, and after that, she was gone. Sasuke, Naruto, and the ANBU guards watched her as she disappeared down the dark corridor and into the elevator. The clock on the wall displayed "09:30" in bright red letters. This was Sakura's first time seeing Sasuke in almost five months, and she hadn't even bothered to spend more than half an hour with him and Naruto.

"A lot changed while I was gone," Sasuke remarked after a minute of silence. "Yeah, no shit," was all Naruto said in response.

* * *

Sakura woke with a groan. The morning sun was shining through the blinds and into her eyes. A steady _clack clack clack_ that sounded like a bird walking along the windowsill outside made her the swells of her headache unbearable. The first thing Sakura did was gather a little bit of chakra into her head to ease her hangover. After a few minutes, the throbbing went away.

Opening her eyes, she immediately realized she wasn't in her room. The bedsheets were far too dark and there weren't any cute stuffed animals around. Where was she? With another groan, she covered her eyes with her right arm. Oh, right. After leaving Naruto and Sasuke and that disaster of a teambuilding session, she hadn't gone home. She'd instead gone bar-hopping to alleviate the stress of having repressed emotions release during that social call. Because she was under the legal drinking age, someone else bought her drinks. Which led her to her current situation.

She turned to the alarm clock sitting on the windowsill inside. The time was 8:12 am. At least she could get to work on time. With a sigh, she sat up and began looking for her clothes. All she found was her underwear. The room stank of drunken sex and a heavy, masculine cologne. She really needed to stop doing this; though she was still young, she had a lot more responsibilities now and this wasn't cute anymore. The door to the bedroom was open, and she heard someone milling about in the apartment. She took a deep breath. She already knew who was out there—this wasn't their first time, that had been a few weeks ago on her eighteenth birthday—but it didn't make this part any less awkward.

Countless emotions were bubbling away in Sakura's chest. She didn't normally feel this conflicted when waking up after a drunken hook up. Why was she feeling this way? Logically, it probably had something to do with last night's interactions with Sasuke and Naruto, but she quickly shoved that thought aside. Ugh, what would Ino say if she found out that Sakura was hooking up with this guy? Probably something about how Sakura always managed to get involved with the elite of Konoha and that _"The deadbeat dads to half of all teen pregnancies are men twenty-five and over! Don't trust older men!"_ Sakura quickly shoved those thoughts aside as well. She didn't want to think about it, not when her energy could be better spent on productive things like her work. The anxiety was a sign that this fling had run its course and she needed to cut this off.

When she walked out into the living room, she saw Tokuma in the kitchen, his back to her. He was pouring coffee out into two mugs and stirring in milk. She looked around the living room. There was her bra that had been carelessly flung across a loveseat. Her skirt, shorts, shirt, and shoes were scattered all around; some on the ground, some on the sofa, some on the coffee table. She got dressed as Tokuma stirred sugar into one of the coffees: three teaspoons, the way she liked it.

He turned around. "Good morning," he greeted her with a warm smile. He handed her a mug of coffee. "Did you sleep well?"

She took the mug from him and carefully sipped the hot beverage. The bitterness of the caffeine chased away the last hazy remanent of her hangover. "I think I'm getting old, I don't feel quite as perky as I used to," she answered honestly.

"Or, you know, I played my part last night well," Tokuma responded with a slight smirk. "If you're feeling old at your age, wait until you pass twenty," he continued in a teasing voice. Sakura didn't bother saying anything else, only murmuring in response. He turned around and began opening the blinds around his place, a secluded granny flat on his clan's estate, letting the morning sun in in all its glory. Sakura watched him as she sipped on her coffee. Her eyes followed his fluid movements around the room, appreciating the way his baggy black sweatpants hung low on his hips and his muscles flexed as he yanked the cord of the window blinds. It hurt how much he looked like Neji. Gods, what was she doing here again?

Tokuma stood next to one of the windows, draining the last bit of coffee from his mug. He turned around to face Sakura and began moving towards her. "Are you busy this morning? I don't have any food here, and I thought we could go out and get breakfast."

Sakura hesitated for a second. Breakfast the morning after? That was not something they'd done before. It was a sweet gesture on Tokuma's part and she was not going to read anything into it, she told herself, not when he was an elite nin and a bit older than her. She was not in the headspace to go to work just yet, not to mention that some of her co-workers (mainly Ino) were pestering her to show up to work a bit later since she often stayed very late. _"You're going to work yourself into an early grave! You need a life! How are you supposed to treat kids with PTSD if you can't follow the advice you give them about maintaining a healthy, balanced life? Work-life balance!"_ Ino would always say. Not to mention that as soon as she went to work, she'd probably spend the day overthinking the conversation last night with Naruto and Sasuke, so any distraction was good. She looked up at Tokuma, returning his smile. "Sure, breakfast sounds good."

Tokuma's smile grew mischievous. "How about a shower first?"

* * *

Sakura perused the menu at Amaguriama, wavering between two bento options. She and Tokuma were seated outside, and throngs of people moved past them on the sidewalk. Amaguriama recently opened a third location to accommodate their booming business, and Sakura had yet to eat here. If it was anything like their two other stores, the food here would be delicious. Her stomach grumbled in anticipation. Grilled unagi was her usual (oh that sweet tangy sauce!), but she was in the mood for something heartier to help settle her stomach from all the alcohol. Maybe she would get nishoku-gohan, and then to satisfy her sweet tooth she would get one of their famous sweets on the side. Or she could get the unagi and one of their famous sweets?

Across the table, Tokuma set his menu down and gave his order to the waitress. "And for you, miss?" she asked.

" _Treat yourself!"_ was another one of Ino's favorite mantras, and Saukra decided to indulge herself. With how much she'd been working lately, she deserved this. "Can I get the unagi bento and coffee daifuku?" The waitress nodded, repeated their order back to them, and shuffled off to input their order.

Sakura looked off onto the street, watching people pass by, before she caught Tokuma looking at her with an intense look. Inwardly, Sakura shook her head. She'd been reading too many of Ino's weird romance novels, like that atrociously written fifty shades of something book that reinforced some truly atrocious ideas about romantic relationships. It was hard to tell what Tokuma's look was given his pearly white eyes; he was probably judging her for stuffing herself with sweets so early in the day. "I know, I know, sweets in the morning—I can't help it," she explained with a laugh.

He smiled, a genuine smile that caused the sides of his eyes to crinkle. "Wouldn't expect anything else from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know if anyone's ever pointed this out to you, but your hair's the color of cotton candy and all that unicorn stuff that seems to be so popular with your generation."

Sakura opened her mouth to rebuke his comment with a sassy one of her own as they were technically of the same generation, but before she could say anything out loud, a boisterous voice rang through the street. "Oi! Sakura-chan!"

The last person she wanted to deal with this morning. With a sigh, she turned around to see Naruto waving enthusiastically at her. "Hi Naruto…"

"Sakura-chan! I'm so glad I caught you, I wanted to tell you—oh hey, uhhhh, Hyuuga-san! What are you doing here?" Naruto asked. Sakura knew that coming from Naruto, it was an innocent question, but she couldn't help hearing suspicion in his voice. She hoped that she and Tokuma didn't look too suspicious together. The last thing she needed this morning was for Naruto to go on a mini kyuubi-fueled rampage after finding out about her hook up. No matter how much she told him off for getting overly involved in her love life (she was an adult and her own person!) he maintained a steady level of over-investment.

"I'm trying to convince your teammate here into agreeing to be my girlfriend," Tokuma responded with a straight face. Sakura froze, but Naruto seemed not to have noticed given how he snorted at what he thought was a joke. Either Tokuma really sold the deadpan, or Naruto was awfully confident that there was no one else in her life. Or he was confident that she wasn't good enough for the blood purity-obsessed Hyuuga clan. She would have felt insulted by that—and there was that all-too familiar sting of being reminded that others saw her as weak and useless—were it not for the rising panic she was feeling over Naruto's response. When Naruto's eyes didn't start bleeding red, she relaxed marginally. "Sakura and I are meeting over breakfast about…a…"

"A project related to the children's mental health clinic." Sakura gave Naruto a fake smile. "What did you want to tell me?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! The bastard wants to see you!"

"The—what?"

"Sasuke. He wants to see you. He said he wanted your help with something," Naruto told her with a shrug.

Sakura gave him a confused look. What did Sasuke want her help for? Had the sun started rising from the west and setting in the east? "Did he say why he wanted me to see him, or what he wanted help on?"

Naruto shrugged some more. As if Sasuke had elaborated on the reasons with him. He tried asking but Sasuke's response was to stare him down. "No idea. I already told Ibiki-san, so you won't have to hunt him or the old lady down to get approval. Hey, I gotta go train and do that apprenticeship stuff that Kakashi-sensei wants. I'll see you around, yeah?" Before Sakura could respond, he turned and headed off.

"See you later," Sakura hollered at him, or rather, at his rapidly disappearing form. For a little while she saw his bright yellow hair bobbing along in the crowd. Like many of her childhood memories, she was watching the back of one of her teammates. Once he became a small speck on the horizon, she faced Tokuma. "That wasn't funny. Naruto's more sensitive than he looks."

"So I've heard," Tokuma replied. "Why are you concerned?"

"Because Naruto always interferes, especially what happened after my ex-boyfriend, so he'd probably come and threaten to beat you up after he figures out who you are, which wouldn't be hard thanks to Hinata-chan. _And_ he runs his mouth, so he'd probably tell Tsunade-shishou, Kakashi-sensei, Sai, Sasuke-kun, and Ino, and I'd have to deal with Ino and Sai. Once Ino knows something, the whole village will know by the end of the day, which I doubt your clan leader and elder would be thrilled about, and Sai would find some way to out-do his own rudeness."

"Ah," Tokuma responded. Neither of them said anything for a few seconds, allowing an uncomfortable silence settle between them. "And what about Hokage-sama, Hatake-san, and Uchiha?" Tokuma eventually asked with forced politeness.

"Tsunade-shishou and Kakashi-sensei have never cared about this aspect of my life, and Sasuke-kun's locked up. Even if he cared, the worst he could do is tell me off." But as soon she said those words, she knew she sounded strained. Liar—most of it was a lie. It was true that Tsunade-shishou wouldn't care. But of course Kakashi would care. Kakashi would care that one of the elite jonin and his only female student, who reminded him of his own beloved teammate, were involved with one another. Shinobi rules also discouraged fraternization between teammates (not that anyone, including Sakura, followed the rules), and this was a problem because when he finally became Hokage Kakashi would likely order her and Tokuma to work together at some point. As for Sasuke, that was not the worst he could do. She still cared about his opinion of her despite the fact she told herself almost every day since he was back that she didn't care. He would judge her weak and stupid for falling prey to the attentions of an older man from a clan obsessed with blood purity. Gods, she was weak and stupid for getting involved with Tokuma in any sort of manner beyond the professional. What had she been thinking? Though the war may have helped age her and her peers, they were all still very young.

She saw it on Tokuma's face that he knew all of this. How embarrassing that she was an open book to everyone; how _annoying_ , as Sasuke said not too long ago. "That's good to know. I guess I'll have to watch out for Uzumaki," he finally concluded after another long, awkward silence.

Not a moment too soon, the waitress reappeared with their food. "The unagi bento for you miss, and the shiojake bento for you sir. Your coffee daifuku will be out shortly. Is there anything else I can get for you?"

Sakura smiled at the waitress. "No thank you, we're good here." With a small bow, the waitress left and an uncomfortable silence settled over the table again. Tokuma and Sakura busied themselves with finding their utensils.

Sakura poked at her unagi. In the space of a few minutes, her appetite turned. What a pity, the food smelled delicious. With a sigh, she looked up at Tokuma, who was watching her. Not for the first time, she wished that the Hyuuga bloodline limit produced eyes that were a bit more typical for an easier read of people's thoughts and feelings. Despite that, he was clearly thinking of something. "I can see you're thinking about something—what's on your mind?" she asked.

Tokuma chewed on a piece of salted salmon for a moment and swallowed. His next words were deliberate and delivered with a careful tone. "How's Uchiha doing?"

Sakura almost groaned and face-planted into her food. These days, she never got away from mentions of Sasuke and Naruto, Naruto and Sasuke. She was her own person, she had her own life, but all people ever wanted to talk to her about was her teammates. (Well, minus Ino, who mostly talked to her about the children's mental health clinic, the latest village gossip, and random pieces of life advice, but she was only one person in the whole damn village.) She settled for a polite albeit fake smile. "He's adjusted surprisingly well to confinement given that he spent so many year roaming around. Naruto keeps him company."

"Uzumaki keeps him company, not you and Uzumaki?" More carefully chosen words.

"I'm too busy these days with missions, the hospital, and the children's mental health clinic," Sakura informed him. "I barely have time for myself, let alone go and…try to socialize with Sasuke-kun. Besides, it was Naruto who convinced him to come back and change his world view, not me, so if anyone has the best chance of rehabilitating him it's Naruto."

Interesting, Tokuma thought, because he'd heard from Ibiki and his ANBU friends about the Uchiha's particular behavior around Sakura, not that he was going to tell her. Everyone knew that Team 7 had odd team dynamics, but Tokuma hadn't realized just how tense they were. When you put together an orphan who was the vessel for a legendary creature, a genius who would never escape his family's legacy, and an ordinary girl who would become one of the most powerful living kunoichi, and the three of them to be overseen by one of the most famous living shinobi who was the son of a very famous war hero (or criminal, depending on who you asked), things were bound to get a bit hairy. Sakura's response to her situation was to become very jaded, beyond the norm for her age; not necessarily a bad thing, nor was her jaded outlook on human nature incorrect in Tokuma's opinion. The only thing that Sakura had wrong was that while she thought the Uchiha and Uzumaki orbited around each other, truth was they were pulled together through her gravity.

"Well, hopefully Uzumaki works his magic because Uchiha could be a valuable asset to Konoha, not to mention that there's a lot of people here who care for him," Tokuma finally responded after another silence lapsed between them. He hurried through the rest of his meal before dabbing his mouth with a napkin. "I've got to go meet up with my team before we report to Hokage-sama. Breakfast is my treat."

Hadn't he been the one to suggest getting breakfast after asking her if she was busy this morning? Sakura glanced at her watch. It wasn't yet ten in the morning, and Tsunade-shishou wouldn't be in for another hour at the earliest, but she wasn't about to hang onto a man and force him into something he didn't want. "Oh, okay. I'll see you around. Thanks for breakfast!" she told him with a confused smile, her first genuine one since Naruto appeared.

"Don't be a stranger," Tokuma replied while giving her a peck on the cheek. As he walked off the waitress came back with her dessert. "Coffee daifuku, miss. Enjoy!" And with that, Sakura was left alone with her thoughts.

* * *

Next chapter: _Kiss It Better_


	3. Kiss It Better

**Homecoming**

– Chapter 3 –

 _Kiss It Better_

* * *

 _Man, fuck yo pride_ _  
_ _Just take it on back, boy, take it on back, boy_ _  
_ _Take it back all night_ _  
_ _Just take it on back, take it on back_ _  
_ _Mmm, do what cha gotta do, keep me up all night_ _  
_ _Hurtin' vibe, man, it hurts inside when I look you in yo eye_

* * *

Sakura watched the ANBU guards with the monkey, dog, and cat masks randomly searched through her pack. She didn't know what she had expected when she went to visit Sasuke after Naruto told her Sasuke wanted her help with something, but she wasn't expecting this.

"Teach me how to heal," he practically demanded of her. She gave him a blank look of confusion. "Please," he added belatedly, thinking that she may have been offended by his previous statement.

After another ten seconds of staring at him, she finally responded. "Heal…as in you want me to teach you medical ninjutsu?"

He nodded. "Okay," she told him, "but it's not as simple as I show you and you whip out your Sharingan. There's a lot of basics to cover: evolutionary biology, genetics, chemistry, physics, biochemistry, anatomy, common diseases and syndromes, first aid, chakra control…"

He nodded again. "It's not like I'm going anywhere, and I have plenty of time."

She gave him a look. "To study on my own," he amended. "Until you have time to demonstrate and provide more guidance."

And now, here she was. Why was she humoring her ex-teammate's request? Who knew, but she was. At moments like this, she cursed her weak heart. She was skeptical of his intentions, yet here she was, bending over backwards to fulfil the first request he made of her. Then again, he'd asked (well, more like demanded) for her help, so maybe he really was changing. Maybe she should give him the benefit of the doubt the way Naruto had?

She sighed to herself. Her life should be about her: her needs, her wants, her sense of fulfilment. Not Naruto's, not Sasuke's, not any man's. If he was changing, she'd be open to that, but she was not going to reach for straws. Sakura shook her head in disappointment at herself. While her self-esteem has improved vastly since she was a genin, she clearly had a long ways to go.

Monkey-face paused on a page of her anatomy textbook describing how one out of every 10,000 people had their organs mirror-reversed from the typical arrangement and the common complications that arose out of this difference. Dog-face was rummaging through her pack and inspecting the pillows, needles, and thread in it. Cat-face was facing her, though she couldn't see where his eyes were looking. The other two stopped inspecting her things after a few more minutes and, satisfied with what they had or had not seen, gave him a nod. He then nodded at her, and she gathered her belongings.

Sasuke watched his ex-teammate with his usual stoicism as she slammed a dozen or so thick textbooks on the table. With a huff, she straightened her back and puffed her chest out to stretch. She may have learned to punch through concrete walls, but carrying so many heavy textbooks hadn't been easy. "Okay so, to start off you're going to need to understand and memorize these," she said, motioning to the books. "There's more, but these are the foundations to everything else."

Sasuke eyed the stack of textbooks. _Grey's Anatomy_ , _Introduction to Genetics_ , and _Biochemistry 4_ _th_ _Edition_ were some of the titles. When he asked her to teach him how to heal, he had thought that she would show him a few basic techniques that he could copy with his Sharingan. He didn't realize it would be this complicated and involved. A part of him scoffed at his arrogance and lack of faith in her capabilities. He'd seen Kabuto at work, and Orochimaru's right-hand man was some combination of doctor and mad scientist. While Sakura's ethics and morals were very different to Kabuto's, she would've had the same basic training. Among the three original members of Team 7, Sakura was the book smart one, scoring the highest of anyone on the written portion of their first chuunin exams, beating out even that Nara genius. Sasuke was smart, but not quite at her level. "How long did this take you?" he asked.

"For these textbooks? A little under three months; I covered about one a week. I was also working at the hospital, training with Tsunade-shishou, and doing missions at the same time. You should be able to get through them a bit faster. If you think this is bad, wait until you see the Nara Clan Medical Encyclopedia," she answered, a sly smile on her face as though she knew what he was thinking. "Playing trivia games helps with memorizing all the content."

Sakura then pulled out several pillows, needles, thread, gauze, splints, and various assortment of medical tools from her pack. "Next up is basic first aid," she explained. "It's not like you zap any and all issues with chakra. Chakra conservation is important unless you have chakra reserves the size of Naruto's, which you don't, so you need to learn how to treat as many issues as possible without chakra. This ranges from CPR to setting broken bones to disinfecting wounds and sewing stitches. Most of this will require me showing you, though you can definitely start practicing sewing stitches with these pillows. I've already sewed examples of the most common stitch patterns. "

"And finally"—here she removed a couple of wide, flattened cushions from her pack—"before you start practicing any medical ninjutsu, you need to refine your concentration and chakra control, which is where we'll start today. Being able to immediately focus is incredibly important. Have you meditated before?"

"No," Sasuke answered truthfully. Orochimaru deemed it a waste of time. "The closest thing I do is katas."

Sakura blew a stream of air out of her mouth to move a piece of her bangs. She blew again as she thought about how to approach the problem at hand. "Katas are a moving meditation, but it's still a bit different. Having proper concentration is important for chakra control, and nothing tests and hones that like meditation." She tossed one of the cushions at him and moved to sit on the floor, her legs flat on the ground and folded like a pretzel.

He moved to sit on the floor as well and tried to mimic her seated position, except his knees were half a foot off the ground. It was not comfortable. As he shifted left and right, front and back, trying to find a sweet spot, Sakura frowned at him. She hadn't moved. "Do you not stretch?"

"Not usually."

She made a faint tutting sound. "Well, you should definitely start doing that. You often times find yourself needing to move into weird spots on yourself or others to do the healing, so flexibility is also important. It helps with taijutsu, too." He sensed that she was sighing to herself, and a part of him found the reversal in positions ironic. Not too long ago, he was the one sighing at how she slowed down Team 7. He'd never really taken Kakashi's lessons on teamwork to heart because he couldn't, not when they would've held him back. Years later, those lessons were being tossed back into his face.

"Try to get in as comfortable of a seated position as possible. We'll only be doing this for ten minutes to start," she instructed. He shifted once last time. "Hold your hands like this: grab your left thumb with your right hand, then wrap the other fingers around your right fist. Got it? Okay, close your eyes," she told him as she closed hers. Sasuke eyed the observation box, where Ibiki was as he always was when Sakura came to visit, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

"Let your face relax." Sasuke consciously let his face relax, and only then did he realize how much tension he carried in his face. "Breath in deeply through the nose and exhale through the mouth. Let it all go with a sigh." He heard Sakura exhale a heavy sigh, and a moment later he mimicked her. "Count your breaths backwards from ten and notice the quality of your breath: the temperature, which nostril you're breathing in through, which nostril you're exhaling, the sensation of your breath through your nose. Ten in, ten out. Nine in, nine out. Eight in, eight out. Seven in, seven out…"

Sasuke never noticed this before, but his inhales felt cold while his exhales felt warm. He also breathed through his left nostril and exhaled through his right. It was funny how he had never paid attention and noticed this simple action that he did thousands of times each day. He had somehow missed this and it had faded into the background.

"…one in, one out. Find a sensation to focus on. This might be how the air feels like blanket around you or how your hands are holding onto each other. Other thoughts may pop up, and when they do, observe them. Notice that they are there, then let them go. Return to the sensation. Over time, you may notice how the boundaries of your body blur and fade away."

Sakura's voice, like her chakra, was soothing. After their first month together as a genin team, Sasuke found her presence soothing. When she was around, the pain he felt wasn't so noticeable. The pain always made him aware of himself and what he was doing. Being with Sakura made all of that go away. He could just be in her presence and not think of anything beyond the moment. That's why when the pain of cursed seal was too much, he reached for her. He had been grateful when her response was to hug him. He never admitted this to anyone, definitely not to Naruto, but he liked her hugs, even if he never responded to them. They were comforting and eased his pain, to the point that a hug from her caused Orochimaru's cursed seal to recede.

If he concentrated hard enough, he could feel that hug. That's what the air felt like; one of her hugs. Warm, comforting, enveloping. The memory of that one hug she gave that controlled the cursed seal was one of his most intense and vivid memories. He remembered Sakura's hiccups of pain and tears of exhaustion with crystal clarity as though everything had just happened. He felt her arms squeezing him and the ways her sobs caused her to tremble. And he remembered how weary he felt in that moment.

"Slowly return your focus back to your breath. Take your time. Feel where you are in this moment. When you are ready, open your eyes." Had that been ten minutes? After another moment with the memory of that hug, Sasuke opened his eyes. He blinked half a dozen times before his eyes adjusted to the light. Sakura was smiling gently at him, looking the most relaxed he had seen her since their days as genin teammates. "You did really well for your first time!" she said to him. "You should meditate every day for at least ten minutes. Over time, you should be able to meditate more and more until you hit thirty minutes per session."

"Hn." He said nothing else as she carefully got up, stretching her legs as she did. "Are we practicing anything else today?" he inquired when she began to close the pockets of her pack. Was she leaving already? Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ibiki looming.

She gave him another smile, this one effervescent. He hadn't seen her smile like this in a long time, and it was contagious. He felt himself wanting to return her smile. "I have to head back to the hospital now. I can probably fit in another training session with you after the weekend. In the meantime, I think I've given you plenty of reading material," she laughed, pointing to the textbooks.

He liked her laughs too. They were clear, light, and joyous like bells. That was how he noticed her depression before the chuunin exams—her customary giggles had ceased. Before he realized what he was saying, the words were out of his mouth. "Naruto mentioned another get together tomorrow evening that included my replacement."

She hesitated for a split second, then recovered and zipped up the last pocket of her pack. "Ah. Naruto didn't mention that to me, but thank you for letting me know." She partially turned around to give him a tentative smile. "Sasuke-kun?"

He gave her a look to let her know he was paying attention. Her shy smile grew a little bolder. "I enjoyed today," she told him softly.

When he realized she was watching him for some sort a response, he gave her nod. "See you tomorrow."

She hesitated again before responding. "See you tomorrow, Sasuke-kun!" As he watched her leave, he felt an indescribable emotion, one that made his heart feel like it was floating away and lifted his spirits for the rest of the day.

* * *

Sakura checked her watch. 9:00 pm. She was running a little late after taking an accidental afternoon, after-training nap. While she wasn't looking forward to a full Team 7 reunion (minus a squad leader-avoiding-being-Hokage), she also wasn't dreading it like she had the first one. Sai wasn't as rude as he used to be, Naruto was Naruto, and during her meditation session with Sasuke yesterday it felt like they'd reached an understanding. He'd listened to her instructions, he didn't undermine her authority, and he'd done the task she'd set for him. It felt like he was gaining respect for her—okay, maybe respect was a bit strong of a word given how he respected no one, but at least he was no longer treating her either with derision or like a glass doll—and though she often told herself she was beyond caring what other people thought of her, especially what he thought of her, his quiet approval made her chest swell with pride.

As Sakura reached the Intelligence Division and walked through the main gate, she heard Naruto jog up behind her. "Hi Naruto."

Naruto, never one to waste time, took the direct route. "Hey Sakura-chan, what were you doing with that Hyuuga?"

Sakura sighed. As they went through the doors, she felt Naruto peering over her shoulder and trying to make eye contact. Even though she had spent the better part of the last couple of days mentally preparing herself for this conversation, she wasn't quite ready. They stepped into the elevator and Sakura pressed the button for the basement. The doors shut and the gears of the elevator ground into action.

She took a deep breath and steadied herself as the display flashed a bright "B" to signal their arrival in the basement. "I told you, we were getting breakfast together to discuss a project related to planning the children's mental health clinic."

"Right, because when I asked Hinata-chan about that, she said she knew nothing about any of her clan members being involved with your clinic. So why were you getting breakfast together?" They stepped out of the elevator, and Sakura saw Sai waiting next to the entrance of Sasuke's cell, carrying a bag filled with cans of alcohol (guess having older disillusioned elite nin as former comrades had its perks, she thought with a snicker), and—was that Ino waving at her? A slightly inebriated Ino waving at her? Jesus cartwheeling Christ, what was Ino doing here?

Naruto paid Ino and Sai no attention and continued to think through the situation at hand. "People don't usually get breakfast together unless…" Naruto turned to look at her, his bright blue eyes wide. "Oh my _gods_!"

"What?"

"Oh my gods, are you _sleeping_ with a _Hyuuga_?" Naruto's voice echoed through the hallway.

"Naruto, keep your voice down!" Sakura hissed, lightly shoving him against the wall. The ANBU guards stationed here were probably friends with Tokuma! She moved past him and towards Sai and Ino, hoping he'd take the hint that their conversation was over.

He didn't. "Oh my gods Sakura-chan, seriously? A _Hyuuga_?" he exclaimed as he jogged to catch up to her.

"Naruto! Shut! Up!" She couldn't let Ino hear about this unless she wanted to get hell from her. But it was too late.

Ino blinked like an owl. "What's Sakura doing with a Hyuuga?" she asked, her response slower and more laconic than usual. Dog-face moved behind her to open the barrier, letting them into Sasuke's confinement area. But she was still able to do a quick mental calculation, and "…oh my gods, Hyuuga Tokuma?"

Naruto whipped around midway through entering Sasuke's room. "Wait, you know him?!"

Sasuke, who had been lying on his bed, sat up and planted his feet on the ground. He gave them a confused look; there was at least one more person than he had been expecting, and they were all being louder than he had expected. His dark eyes met Sakura's green ones, and she groaned. Ino's aptitude for gossip was something else and Naruto's lack of discretion was going to get them all killed one day. "Naruto, can you move? Ino, what are you even doing here and why are you already drunk?"

"Caught this guy around town," Ino responded while playfully nudging Sai, who gave her one of his signature blank smiles, "when he was picking up shochu and decided that, you know, he and I should hang out," she finished while flirtatiously batting her eyelashes at Sai. As they sat down around the table (and somehow there was the right number of seats), Ino jockeyed to sit next to Sai, who gave her another blank smile. Satisfied, she immediately turned her attention back to Sakura. "Also, I'm not drunk, I'm tipsy, as I should be since it's Saturday night, so don't be so rude. But what was I saying? Oh right, Forehead, you grave robbing gold digger. The youngest he's supposed to go for is twenty, and the oldest you're supposed to go for is twenty-two. Rules like that exist for a reason, you know. The deadbeat dads to half of all teen pregnancies—"

"—are men twenty-five and over and don't trust older men. I _know_. It's nothing serious between me and him," Sakura replied quickly, hoping to put an end to the conversation. Why was it that each time she was here with other people, her sex life was always the topic of conversation? That was the last thing she wanted to discuss with Naruto and Sasuke present, and from the vague look on Sasuke's face as he moved to sit next to her, it was also the last thing about which he wanted to hear. "Here Sai, I can help pass out the shochu. Who wants the lime Chu-Hi?"

"Ooo, gimme! And really Sakura, another Hyuuga? You must really have a thing for that clan."

Sakura glared at Ino while she passed her the drink across the table. "Should you really be drinking more? You're sloshed enough as is."

Naruto gave Ino a confused look as he grabbed a random flavour from the bag. "Where are you getting those numbers from? And what do you mean by _another_ Hyuuga?" he asked as he popped his can open.

"Gay math. Half your age plus seven is the lowest you can go, and for good reason. Do you know how easy it is for older men to manipulate you into doing what they want? You can't trust them," Ino informed the table as though she were the great sage of relationships.

"Ino…" Sakura sighed while handing Sasuke a yuzu-flavored one, "it was just a fling. It's already mostly over. Can we _please_ talk about something else?"

"What do you mean another Hyuuga?" Naruto asked again, looking first at Sakura, then at Ino, then at Sakura again, then at Sai and Sasuke as though asking them for backup.

Sakura paused, trying to think of a way to steer the conversation away from her love life. She looked up at the observation box. Ibiki's ominous figure was looming there as usual. Frowning, Sakura turned back to answer Naruto, but Ino beat her to the punch. "Oh my gods, Sakura hasn't told you? Sakura's had the who's who of Konoha after her!" With a groan, Sakura remembered that this was why she didn't drink with Ino more often. Anytime they were together and Ino had a _little_ too much to drink, she would start telling anyone and everyone who would listen about who was in Sakura's "body count." She felt Naruto's confusion, Sai's curiosity, and Sasuke's tenseness.

"I've only had one bad relationship and a couple of flings. I haven't even had a one-night stand yet. Besides," she said, whipping her head to stare Ino down, "it's nothing compared to your body count. You've slept with more men _and_ women than the rest of us combined!"

"Don't sound so jealous, Sakura," Ino retorted with a laugh.

"I'm not. I'm just saying my body count's very normal," Sakura grumbled, staring at her can strawberry-flavored alcohol. With unnecessary concentration and force, she popped her can open and drank half of it in one go. She then turned her head up to look at the spider on the ceiling, which was suspended on a new web. Maybe if she stared at the ceiling hard enough and ignored everyone else, this topic conversation would end and a new one would begin.

Naruto was still stuck on Ino's earlier statements about Sakura's love life. "Sakura's had the who's who? Like who, other than the Hyuuga I saw her with today? What does this have to do with her sleeping with _another_ Hyuuga?" Naruto asked. Sakura kicked his chair, causing him to wobble and spill some of his shochu. So much for ignoring everyone else. "Hey! What was that for?"

Sakura was ready to bite Naruto's head off and tell Ino to shut up, but Ino responded first again. "She and Neji had it bad for one another for a couple weeks there—I couldn't get any time in with her because they were too busy fucking each other," she informed the others before taking a swig of her drink.

Sakura tensed up, and she felt Sasuke do the same next to her. He also paused his action of running a thumb up and down the side of his shochu can. Trust Ino to never let secrets be _secrets_. Naruto, who had been licking shochu drops off his hand and chugging the rest of his drink, choked mid-chug. Like the previous time Sakura drank with him down here in Sasuke's cell, he doubled over in loud, hacking coughs, causing the ANBU guards to shift from their normal positions to inspect the five merry occupants of the cell. " _What?!_ "

Sai looked confused, or rather, a perfect imitation of confused. "Dickless, did you not know this?"

" _NO? WHY WOULD I KNOW?_ Did she tell you too?" Naruto snapped.

"Did you not notice how last year, Sakura was 'really busy' at the hospital for a couple weeks at the same time Neji was 'really busy' despite not having any missions?"

"Yeah, but I just thought, you know, she was really busy at the hospital! Because she's always really busy at the hospital!" he exclaimed as he stood up, his chair pushed back with an ear-splitting screech as its feet scraped along the concrete floor. The ANBU guards shifted again, their uneasiness clear in their body language. "And why would I keep track of Neji's schedule?"

Before Sai or Naruto—or Sasuke—could get a word in, Ino continued her drunken word vomit. "Hey, so how did that even start between you and Neji? Why did it end? You never told me!" Ino demanded, her eyes lighting up at the thought of more gossip. She held up her can of shochu as though she were making a toast.

A toast to the end of her social life, Sakura thought bitterly. She did _not_ need those details shared with the whole world, not to the ANBU guards who looked like they were peering in with interest ; not to Naruto, who would have the kyuubi egging him on; and especially not to Sasuke, because he was Sasuke. Why was her love life under interrogation? This was a room reserved for extracting game-changing secrets from S-class missing nin, like Sasuke, not mundane details of the love life of an ordinary person.

"Ino…"

"What? Oh come on, it was last year. You can't possibly still be hung up. Spill!"

" _Neji_? I mean, I liked him and all, and I'm grateful he saved Hinata-chan, but like—"

Sakura let out an exasperated sigh and held her can with both hands as though she were wringing her friends' necks. Oh, how she wished she could actually throttle them right now! Too bad Naruto was slated to be the next next Hokage and Ino was her best friend and close collaborator. She felt the alcohol loosening her tongue. "You two! You're impossible! Ugh! Fine! It started out as us blowing off some steam after a mission—"

"The Tonika mission?" Ino interrupted, the sly smile across her face spreading wider and wider. She looked like the cat that got the cream. Naruto's face paled. "You were sleeping with him when he was working with us?"

"Yes! I was, okay? And the sex was great so we kept at it for a couple of weeks! But then we both got busy and then he died protecting you! Happy?" she exclaimed while jabbing a finger in Naruto's direction. That shut Naruto up real quick, who sat down and nodded. She turned to stare Ino down. "And don't you _dare_ make some shitty joke about how he and Tokuma are from the same clan!"

The ANBU guards returned to their original positions, either satisfied or bored by what they had heard. Or they were judging her. Sai put on his fake smile, the one he always used. He was probably judging her too. Sasuke was watching her intently, and Sakura's stomach hit the floor when she saw the look on his face. Ino and Naruto's judgment, she could handle. Sai's too, and she hoped that the ANBU guards didn't report any of the conversation back to Ibiki or Tsunade-shishou. But Sasuke judging her—for crossing professional boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, for again being the emotional one on Team 7 who did the irrational, emotional things like crying all the time—make her stomach clench. He was judging her for fucking one of their peers in the heat of the moment and then fucking one of his relatives _._ Team 7 was truly fucked up, and it wasn't only because of the boys. She'd had a hand in that too. "Can we move to another topic? Something less depressing?" Sakura snapped.

"If we wanted to talk about depressing, we could talk about that abusive relationship you were in for six months with what's his face? Mako? Mokoto? Ma—"

"Makoto," Sakura muttered bitterly. That wound still stung, and some part of her resented Ino for bringing it up. Ino was the closest person Sakura would ever have to a sister, and like a relationship with a sister, it came with all of the bickering, the sharing of clothes and shoes, the sharing of secrets, the spilling of secrets, and judgment. She could take Ino's judgment sometimes in small doses, but now she was open to judgment from not one but three of the closest people in her life, and another person who was supposed to be the love of her life. Sometimes she regretted telling Ino anything about her flings and relationships, until Ino made up for it with stellar advice.

"I can't believe you kept going back to him each time after he was a massive douche and made you cry. I get that his family is loaded, but really Sakura."

What was with this dogpile from Ino? Did she have a "kick me" sign taped to her back? "Well, he kept saying he'd change—"

"Don't they always promise to change?" Ino asked while rolling her eyes. The boys were silent, looking at Sakura and Ino with their individual renditions of deer-in-the-headlights look. Naruto's was borderline comical, Sai's was akin to an alien that had read about awkward shock in a book without understanding what it meant, and Sasuke's was barely different from his typical blasé expression except for the slight straining around his mouth. Men rarely knew how to respond or what to say in conversations like this. "My gods, you're such a sucker for men's bullshit."

What now rose in Sakura and rushed through her veins red-hot wasn't petulance but anger. Deep, deep anger. Sakura knew that this well of anger, rooted in resentment, existed, but she did her best to bury it. But sometimes, it boiled over and then she could not control it. "Because he was there! He was always there! He didn't randomly leave to seek revenge or to train for years away from Konoha or disappear on missions! So when it was time to kiss and make up, it was easy!" She paused to take a couple deep breaths to calm herself, but failed. "Ugh you guys are ones to judge! You," she excalimed while pointing to Sai, "can't even show emotions. You," and she pointed at Naruto, "took over five years to notice Hinata was in love with you because you're always running around trying to save the world, and _you_ ," now it was Ino's turn, "can't even admit out loud who you really like!" She didn't bother with Sasuke because that would be too awkward.

"We're judging," Ino responded calmly, "because you either shit where you eat, get into shitty relationships, or both. If I didn't know any better I'd say you enjoy toxic, dysfunctional relationships."

That hit a little too close to home. She didn't enjoy her relationship with Makoto per se, but somehow it controlled her. The lows were low, but they made the moments when he was tender and loving all the more potent. It made her feel needed and wanted. Same with the way she clung onto Sasuke when she was a child; the moments when he acknowledged her or even tried to cheer her up tasted so, so sweet in comparison to the usual bitterness that was left in her mouth from their interactions. That's what happens when you have low self-esteem, she told herself countless times, you get trapped in this bullshit that shreds your self-esteem even more.

Sakura flushed (from the alcohol, she told herself) and looked at the observational box again to help steady her emotions. Ibiki was watching them like a hawk. She frowned again; what was going on? Did he watch all visits Sasuke had? Sasuke followed her line of sight to the observation box, and he too frowned.

"But hey, maybe it'll be different with this Hyuuga Tokuma guy, though I doubt it given he's an elite nin," Ino commented as she drained the last of her can. "Can you pass me another?"

"No, I'm cutting you off. You talk too much when you're drunk," Sakura grumbled.

Naruto, who was in the middle of opening a second can, perked up again. "Ino, what did you mean by you 'doubt it given he's an elite nin'? What's wrong with elite nin?" he asked in a sincere, Naruto sort of way.

Ino laughed, a deep, throaty laugh, and Sakura despaired. Sasuke tilted his head slightly her way, which she tried to ignore. It wasn't hard to when she was tipsy like this. Sasuke, on the other hand, had barely drank. "Sakura, ball's in your court. You have first-hand experience with this, after all," Ino called out to her in between giggles.

Oh gods, to answer this kind of question under the influence of alcohol. Sakura barely processed Ino's backhanded compliment. Tonight was not her night. She sighed again and massaged her temples before she asked, "Naruto, do you know why most of the male elite nin are single, with no girlfriends or wives in the picture?"

"Err…cuz they're married to their work?"

"That's what men would rather believe. Being married to their work isn't great, but at least then there's a stable income. No, that's just a convenient excuse. The main reason is because they all have horrible personalities that make them literally the worst people to be in relationships with and they tend to die young. So you don't have to get all nosy about me and Tokuma. It's already mostly over."

"I don't get it, Sakura-chan," Naruto whined into his can of alcohol. "If you think Tokuma is 'the worst' then why did you sleep with him? Why do you think he and other elite nin are 'the worst'?"

She sighed. She hoped she wasn't saying anything she would regret tomorrow. "Because everyone gets lonely. Sometimes it's just nice to have someone else there next to you. And have you ever met an elite nin who wasn't completely full of himself and expected that people who are 'below him' to rearrange everything about their lives to suit him? I'm tired of being treated like trash by men." She gave him a pointed look. "No offense, I like you plenty as a friend, but if I ever had to be in a relationship with you…I'd hate you pretty quick."

Sai smiled—another blank smile, but not a fake one—as Naruto's jaw hit the floor in shock. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, you run off and take the most dangerous missions to 'save the world' and it feeds your need to be 'great'. You spend most of your time building up your 'greatness' instead of doing other things, like having normal human relationships. You go off to do 'great things' without thinking about how your loved ones might be impacted should you not have time for them or return."

Naruto visibly wilted. "But it's for the greater good!" he protested, shoving his can in Sakura's direction and spilling some of his alcohol on the table. "And if that's what you really think of us, why do you even date men and why are you even friends with us?"

"Sakura dates men because she's a straight woman, and straight women are always happy with what they find in the trash," Ino commented. Sakura interjected with an indignant "hey!" but Ino ignored her and plowed on. "I date men because Konoha's a tiny fucking place and there's not that many of us. And we're friends with you guys because we've never dated you." The _duh_ was left off as Ino stopped talking to concentrate on finding the bag of unopened shochu cans.

"You're so fucking rude," Sakura grumbled with an eye roll. Naruto, based on his hearty nodding, concurred. She leaned back into her chair and tilted her head upwards. She closed her eyes and tried again to ignore the feeling of Sasuke watching her.

"So…what do women want in a guy?" Sai interjected. "You've mentioned in detail what you don't want in men, so what do you want?"

Sai's earnest question took Sakura by surprise and caused her to sit back up in a quick motion, which startled both Ino and Naruto. Both blondes squealed as they wobbled in their seats and tried not to look not guilty about how they were reaching for the bag of canned shochu under the table. For a moment Sakura gaped at Sai like a pufferfish inflating itself. She thought about his question but was drawing a blank, which forced her to say the first thing that came to mind. "Honestly? There's this joke Ino and I have about men…"

"Yeah?" Naruto piped up.

"There's three things women want in men," Ino chirped, her eyes glazed as she wrangled the bag of alcohol . "Big heart, big dick, big money. But! You have to pick two of the three at most. Incredible lucky women end up with men with two of the three; most women end up with men who have one or none."

Sai and Sasuke were silent at Ino's admission. Naruto balked. "Oh, uhh…" he hedged, not sure how he was supposed to respond. "That's…uhh…interesting...?"

"I'd go for big dick and money," Ino offered, swaying slightly as she passed Naruto another can of alcohol.

"Does Sai have either?" Sakura snorted. Ino snapped her head up, her face bright red, even redder than she had been from the alcohol, to give Sakura a glare reminiscent of a certain torture specialist's usual demeanor, one that he had on his face right now as he was observing them. "Shut the fuck up!"

Naruto looked confused for the gazillionth time that night and looked like he wanted to ask what that was about, but couldn't formulate the question. He popped open his third can of shochu instead. Sai gave Sakura a blank and fake smile. "Hag, what is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. I'd prefer a big heart and a big dick. And that he be civilian," Sakura answered, recovering the moment. Sasuke, who still hadn't joined the conversation at this point, was still looking at her. And again, she couldn't really tell what the expression was on his face—the alcohol was really messing with her perception—though it looked like the tiniest frown.

"So is that why you date tall men with deep voices?" Ino asked with a lecherous grin.

"Ino!"

"What's the connection there?" Naruto asked, his face bunched up in concentration as he tried to keep up with the conversation. Sakura could see that the alcohol was starting to hit him.

"Why a civilian?" Sai asked. Though his voice and face were as blank as ever, Sakura sensed more genuine curiosity. Tonight's conversation would probably be one to remember for Sai, given his propensity to observe human nature in an effort to replicate it. "Civilians aren't likely to understand the pressures of our profession."

"That's true, but it'd be nice to be with someone normal who will live past the age of fifty-five."

Ino chortled, her delight filling the space. "Touché. Good luck though on the big heart front. You know what my grandma always said, a ma—"

"—n's gotta love you twice as much for him to meet you halfway. I know, I _know._ " Sakura held the cool can up to her forehead before taking a sip. The drink was fizzy and sweet and she could barely taste the alcohol, which reminded her that she always forgot how potent Chu-Hi was. No wonder she was talking so freely.

"Although, if it's big heart and a long lifespan you're looking for, Iruka-sensei would fit the bill. I can't say anything about his dick size though."

Naruto snorted at the ridiculousness Ino's suggestion, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Ino, and Sakura spluttered on her drink and turned bright red. "Ino!"

"What? I'm just saying, if the shoe fits…and given how sensitive of a man he is, even if he wasn't well-hung he'd probably still be great in the—"

"Pig, that's not funny," Sakura ground out. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure. How about…would you ever date a younger man? You've only ever dated older guys," Ino asked with a smirk. She looked around the room; Sai was observing the dynamics with interest, Naruto was barely containing his next round of laughter, and Sasuke was most certainly glaring at her.

Sakura heaved an annoyed sigh. Running a hand through her hair, she weighed her options. She chewed the ridge of her can for good measure. "If I answer this, can we move onto another topic of conversation?"

"Sure thing babe. So: would you ever date a younger man?" Ino repeated as sweetly and innocently as she could. Sasuke maintained his glare on her, which she ignored. Naruto, seeing Sasuke's response, began to giggle, and Sai, seeing Naruto's reaction, gave all of them a confused look.

Sakura was too absorbed in thinking of her answer to notice the tension. "Well…when I'm a bit older, sure. But I don't think right now," Sakura answered truthfully. Alcohol was a powerful tool of disorientation and truth serum. "From what you've said, younger guys are all premature ejaculations and needing a mother, which is not my cup of tea."

"So basically, what you're saying is that once they learn to be self-sufficient, cater to other people's needs and wants, and hold back on nutting within the first two minutes, you'd date them?" Ino asked. After Sakura nodded, Ino leaned back into her chair triumphantly. "Sounds like you need to ask Iruka-sensei on a date," she repeated with a laugh, earning her a glare from Sakura and Sasuke. "Oh come one, lighten up. He's cute and think about all the teacher-student roleplays you could—"

"I-n-o!"

"Given how you're sleeping with Tokuma, who's about the same age as Iruka-sensei and looks way too much like Neji for it to be a coincidence on your part, I didn't think you'd be so uptight about this."

Sakura's head hit the table as she groaned, causing Ino to laugh uproariously and Naruto's giggling to grow louder. She was never going to live this down. "Someone kill me now," she moaned into the table. After a few more high-pitched snorts from Ino and the sound of Naruto and Ino collapsing on top of each other in laughter, she felt a hand rubbing her shoulder to comfort her. She turned a cheek to the table, confused as to who would be comforting her right now, to see Sasuke nonchalantly patting her. She frowned out of drunken confusion. What was going on? It was probably Sai but with her drunken vision she mistook him for Sasuke. But wait, why would Sai be comforting her? She groaned as she turned her forehead back onto the cool, hard surface. Nothing made sense right now.

* * *

As he gave Sakura what he hoped was some comfort, Sasuke reflected on his peers' antics. For one thing, Naruto's alcohol tolerance was lower than he thought it would be. For another, the Yamanaka girl really hadn't changed much other than the fact that she'd swapped her crush on him for a crush on his replacement, and his replacement on Team 7 was tolerable. As for Sakura…

Sasuke watched the pink-haired girl with careful nonchalance. With Ibiki watching them, he needed to be careful. She was still face-down on the table, ignoring whatever latest squabble was going on between Ino, Naruto, and Sai. Ibiki showed up for observation when Sakura came to visit him, and he wasn't sure what that meant. Nothing good, he was fairly certain, though Ibiki's reputation was based on direct interrogation and not third-party observation.

He watched as she sighed heavily into the table. No, she wasn't a girl anymore and he shouldn't infantilize her; as he had learned over the last half year, she was a capable young woman with her own agenda and life, one that didn't revolve around him or really even include him.

She'd changed in ways he hadn't predicted. Though she still cared for him, she hadn't come to visit him outside of her formal duties and Naruto forcing her. Now he knew why, thanks to Yamanaka's very informative drunken questioning. When had women, ones who were boy-crazy as children, get so jaded? Yamanaka revealed that Sakura had been in a series of failed relationships, including one with another prodigy that had ended with a funeral and a second that seemed to have had left a significant impression on her. Upon hearing that, a cold, heavy feeling, like the one he felt when he saw Sakura in danger during the chuunin exam, gripped Sasuke's stomach. Had he really missed out on that much?

Sasuke frowned. Life goes on, but had it really changed that much in the time he had been gone? He had been doing his best tonight to listen to the conversation and learn about everything he had missed, but he was beginning to realize just how much life and a certain woman, who had declared her unmoving devotion to him several times, had moved on. Had he been arrogant in thinking that once forgiveness was granted, life would go back to the way it was? Naruto would be that bright ball of eternal optimism, Kakashi would be that sanctimonious lecturer on the important things of life, and Sakura would be that sweet spot of comfort who he could protect. Naruto was still eternally optimistic given how he had forgiven Sasuke in the blink of an eye, and Kakashi was still happy to lecture given how he'd read Sasuke the riot act on the battlefield about Sakura, but Sakura. So much had changed and he felt left behind. What did he have to take back? Would his pride allow it?

"I hate you all," Sakura moaned again. "I'm going to let all of you die next time." She paused, then turned her face in the direction of the Yamanaka girl. "Ino, if you mention anything that's been said tonight to anyone outside of this room, I swear on my ancestors' graves…"

Yamanaka laughed harder yet as she moved to hug Sakura but ended up collapsing on her pink-haired best friend. Sasuke pulled his hand away. He looked up at the clock. 9:45pm. This was the first time he'd ever socialized with his peers like this; alcohol was one of the shinobi vices that he'd meticulously avoided prior to his imprisonment, and he was reminded why. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

The sun was unfairly bright, but then again it wasn't like she had a real hangover. Ino shaded her eyes with her right hand and continued powerwalking. A certain someone was kind of a scary superior, and because she'd forgotten to remove her makeup before bed and had to do her full face cleansing routine this morning on top of her usual morning beauty routine, she was running a little late. She smirked as she thought of the previous night. Not that she'd ever tell any of them, but Team 7 were much better drinking buddies than her own team.

Ino jogged up to the Intelligence Division and gave the ANBU guards out front a smile and a wave. They nodded at her, and with a clunk the gate opened. She ran up to the doors and entered the building to see Morino Ibiki waiting for her.

"Good day Morino-sempai!"

Ibiki nodded in greeting and grumbled, "You did well last night. You gave us a lot to work with and to report back to Hokage-sama. Now, from your perspective, what is your assessment?"

"I can confirm all of your suspicions; Uchiha Sasuke displays a significant attachment to his former teammate, Haruno Sakura. I would go as far as to assert that she is his primary person of concern. Though sir, may I ask a question?"

Ibiki looked at her expectantly. Ino took that as a yes. "If I may, why does Uchiha Sasuke's romantic interests concern the Intelligence Division?"

Ibiki smirked, which was a rather disconcerting sight as there was nothing warm or friendly about his demeanor. His facial scars puckered in a way that made him look more haggard. "Why wouldn't it? With both the Sharingan and Rinnegan, Uchiha Sasuke is one of the most powerful living shinobi and probably one of the most powerful ever. Whether or not he will remain loyal to Konoha, because of romantic entanglements or otherwise, is important. Whether or not he will procreate, and with whom, is a matter of Konoha's security."

Ino raised her eyebrows. She hoped Sakura realized what she was getting herself into and whether or not Sasuke was worth it.

"And Yamanaka?"

"Yes sir?"

Ibiki gave her a long side eye. "If that's what you really think of men, you're going to end up an old maid."

Ino barely suppressed an eye roll and her retorts of _did you not hear that I bat for more than one team_ and _studies have shown unmarried single women live the longest and happiest_ and _how would you know, you humorless and loveless old fart_. "Yes sir, I'll keep that in mind."

"You're dismissed."

"Thank you sir."

* * *

Next chapter: _Work_


	4. Work

A/N: Thank you for your follows, favorites, and lovely reviews. I do take your comments and suggestions into account, and your enthusiasm keeps me going!

* * *

 **Homecoming**

– Chapter 4 –

 _Work_

* * *

 _I believed all of your dreams, adoration_ _  
_ _You took my heart and my keys and my patience  
You took my heart on my sleeve for decoration  
You mistaken my love I brought for you for foundation_ _  
_ _All that I wanted from you was to give me_ _  
_ _Something that I never had_

* * *

Sakura tried not to let her jealousy show up on her face, so instead what Sasuke saw was a deep scowl. Her dainty, doll-like features were twisted in a way that reminded him of an alpaca in mid-chew. He, having been a prodigy, mastered most ninja skills with astonishing speed. Prodigies always exasperated her; Neji, Tokuma, and even Kakashi-sensei also managed to pick up basic medic skills from watching her at work with a speed that felt like a mockery of the time and effort she'd put into mastering the art of healing. Sakura huffed as she examined Sasuke's stitch patterns on the pillows. Columns of neat little bars of even length tied up in tidy little bows lined the pillow. As usual, he was irritatingly competent and his stitch patterns were precise and almost looked machine-sewn. How did he manage to do this so easily with a hooked needle? It'd taken her a few years before her stitch patterns were this even and practiced, and he was doing them one-handed!

She took a deep breath, one that filled her belly, as she tried to tamp down on her irritation and instead nurture her pride in her student. "Sasuke-kun?"

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

She threw the pillow at his head, half out of frustration and half out of playfulness. He leaned a little to the side and the pillow flew past his head. Sakura heard a small sizzling sound as the pillow bounced off of the energy barrier that encased his cell. The ANBU guards heard it too as snake-face and rat-face turned to look at the source of the sound. After they saw the pillow bouncing across the concrete floor, they silently turned back to their original positions.

"You're annoying," she told him with a wry smile on her face. "Has anyone ever told you that? You're incredibly annoying at how you're too good at anything you put your mind towards."

"I try my best," he said with no humor in his voice as he went to pick the pillow up, but Sakura chuckled nonetheless at his dry response. At that, he smirked.

Over the last few months, she and Sauske had settled into a comfortable routine. She came by three times a week, usually Monday-Wednesday-Friday, to tutor him in all things related to medical ninjutsu. While their interactions were stilted and awkward at the beginning, over time that too had settled into a routine. She talked, he listened. She always gave him various tips and pointers related to the immediate task, but she also told him about the various going-ons in the village that she'd heard from Ino, the latest news about people they grew up with that she'd heard from Ino, and updates on the peace that had settled across the world that she heard thanks to her proximity to Tsunade and Kakashi. She told him about how Tsunade-shishou and the council were trying to pin Kakashi-sensei down to fullfill his duties as the Sixth Hokage; how the kage summits now were more like drinking and whinging sessions as opposed to tense negotiations; how she was working on a children's mental health clinic to help children traumatized by the war adjust to a life in peace. He never seemed bothered by her talking. He hadn't told her to be quiet or that she was annoying, and on occasion he even asked questions, so talk she did. Someone had to fill the silence.

Various teaching instruments dotted Sasuke's cell. In the corner next to the bookshelf was a CPR dummy and a skeleton. The bookshelf supported stacks of medical textbooks, most of which Sasuke had covered in no time due to his intelligence and ample time to study. Next to the bookshelf was a folded up massage table that they'd used while feeling and locating various muscles, tendons, and organs in each other's bodies, since there was no way Sakura could drag a cadaver down here for Sasuke to analyze. A small fish that Sakura used to demonstrate the theory behind basic healing ninjutsu swam by itself in a fishbowl that sat on the desk. He had mastered most of the content she'd taught him, thanks to his dedication to her instructions.

They'd progressed much quicker in their lessons than Sakura anticipated. With a huff, she sat back down in the chair and blew a piece of her hair away from her face. Sasuke gave her a look, and she wrinkled her nose at him. "In terms of the basics and the book stuff, you've got those down pat…"

Sasuke sensed a "but" coming. "But…"

Sakura heaved a sigh. " _But_ , to be honest, most of the things I learned, I learned on rotation. _But_ , I can't exactly take you over to the hospital and let you work on some of the patients."

"Ah."

"Ah indeed," she replied. "I mean, I could bring in small animals for you to practice on, but I don't want to deal with what happens after you heal them."

"I could do with some more pets," he deadpanned. Sakura couldn't help giggling. The first few times he made his dry observations, she'd been so very confused. As a child, Sasuke was grimly matter-of-fact. There was no sense of playfulness to him whatsoever. Now, as an adult, he displayed an unexpected humor. These days, even when he was insulting Naruto, it was done more for humor than out of insult. Maybe this was because he'd achieved the catharsis he'd been seeking, or maybe it was a healthy coping mechanism for the harsh realities of his life. Many other elite nin, such as Genma and Tokuma, who Sakura had last seen a bit over two months ago before he left for an extended mission, had well-developed senses of humor. With a smile, she thought about how Sasuke had changed in small but noticeable ways. She hoped that this was a reflection of larger changes.

"Sakura?"

Hearing her name snapped her out of her reverie. "Yes?"

Sasuke paused for a moment and thought carefully about what he was about to say next. "Tell me about your fight with Sasori." He hesitated, then added, "Naruto told me some bits and pieces, but I want to hear more."

She stared at him with wide eyes. He held her gaze, his eyes dark and unreadable, and smirked at her surprise. Was Sasuke really starting a new avenue of conversation with her? One that was about her? This was a sudden change of conversation topic. Sakura then shook her head at herself. Sasuke was changing; she shouldn't judge him by who he was and she should encourage some of the better changes, like this new inquisitiveness about and trying to forge bonds with the people around him. "Sure! What do you want know?"

He watched her as she began to drag the CPR dummy into the center of the room. He walked over and helped her drag the prop into the center of the room. Their hands brushed one another's, and Sasuke smirked again, this time about how Sakura flushed. "Everything. Start from the beginning," he commanded.

She nodded and hastily withdrew her hand, only to absent-mindedly rub the spot where he'd touched her. "Let's review some basic first aid. If you need to jumpstart someone's heart, where do you place the defibrillator electrode paddles if you're doing it from the sterno-apical position?"

Sasuke first placed his right hand just to the left of the center of the chest, his fingers facing up to indicate the direction the paddle should be placed, then along the right ribs underneath where the heart would be, his fingers running parallel with the bones of the rib cage. "Why do we do this?" Sakura asked while hovering over him.

"So that the electrical current can run through the heart," he replied. "Did you take on Sasori on your own?"

She gave him a hearty smile and shook her head. "Good. And no, I didn't. Chiyo-sama used me as a puppet. Because she'd taught Sasori everything he knew about puppetry, she was able to guide me to his weak spots. Where do you place the paddles if you're doing it from an anterior-posterior position?"

Sasuke moved, almost bumping into Sakura, so that he was crouching to the dummy's left and rolled the dummy onto its right side. The dummy was weighted, so it wasn't the easiest task. Using a knee to prop up the dummy he indicated a paddle at the chest and another at the back, both in the left half of the dummy's chest. "How did you destroy his puppets?"

"The same way I punch craters into the ground. The first puppet wasn't that hard," Sakura answered as she nodded in approval of his indicated positions for the paddles. She was back to hovering over him. "Fighting Sasori's Third Kazekage puppet was much harder and Chiyo-sama damaged two puppets trying to take that one out, but I was able to demolish it after I used myself as bait to lower his guard. What do you do if you're out in the field, someone's got cardiac arrhythmia, and you don't have access to a defib?"

Sasuke slowly turned towards her, resting the dummy back on the floor. He almost always looked indifferent, but now he looked concerned, which surprised Sakura. "You used yourself as bait?"

"Yes, and it worked."

He looked her in the eye, an odd gleam in his eyes and a tiny frown on his mouth. "You put yourself at risk."

"And it worked. Now, what do you do if you're out in the field and you don't have access to a defib?"

"Use chakra, specifically lightening release, but we have to be careful not to use too high of a current," Sasuke intoned. Even though his voice was even, she could hear flickers of disapproval in his intonation. "Why did you put yourself at risk like that?" he asked, agitation seeping into his voice.

"Because it was the only way to destroy the Third Kazekage puppet. That was not even the worst of the battle; that was practically the warm up. What is the fatal level of current?"

"100 milliamps." He frowned thinking about Sakura's comment about Sasori's puppets and how her using herself as bait was only the beginning of that battle. "What was the worst part?"

"Probably when he stabbed me through the abdomen with a poisoned sword. That would've been a fatal injury," Sakura sighed. She heard Sasuke take a sharp breath in. "But it's okay though! Chiyo-sama saved me with a special technique of hers that she developed to give life to puppets, and then she gave her life in exchange for Gaara's. After you've placed the paddles in the correct spots, what is the procedure?

"Stand clear of the person and make sure others are standing clear as well. After the defibrillator has delivered the shock, CPR needs to be started immediately after. With a defibrillator, the voltages to revive a human heart can range from 200 to 1700 volts. AEDs deliver a 3000 volt charge in less than 0.001 seconds," Sasuke rattled off the pertinent facts, to which Sakura nodded approvingly. He, however, did not share that sentiment. "Why were you stabbed?"

"I had to protect Chiyo-sama, and I figured I could take it. And if I couldn't, then Chiyo-sama could revive me," Sakura answered honestly. She began rubbing that spot on her hand again. "It was a calculated risk, and it paid off. At the end though…Chiyo-sama said that Sasori could've avoided the last attack when the puppets stabbed him through his core, the only living part of him, but he didn't. I'm not quite sure what happened there," she murmured, lost in her memories and missing Sasuke's deep frown. Why had Sasori chosen death? With a shake of her head, she returned to the present moment and gave Sasuke a smile that he didn't return. "Now, how do you do CPR?"

While it was quite admirable that Sakura had defeated an Akatsuki member, the fact that she had put herself in such danger bothered Sasuke. "You shouldn't put yourself in danger like that," he told her as he began to hunch over the dummy. "What if she hadn't been able to revive you?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and drew back. _Men_. Kakashi-sensei and Naruto had responded similarly once they heard the details of the fight. Part of her, the part of her that was a little girl who craved Sasuke's attention, whooped and cheered at his protectiveness. Most of her, the capable adult who'd sacrificed so much time, sweat, blood, and tears into her trade, chattered bitterly. Sometimes it felt like he'd grown to respect her capabilities over the course of her overseeing his medical training, but then he'd show his ass again. "In case if you haven't noticed, I'm a ninja like you and not a glass doll. Almost dying is a common occupational hazard, one that you're quite familiar with," she pointed out. "So it's a good thing she was able to revive me. Now, show me how you do CPR."

Sasuke dutifully demonstrated CPR for her. He placed the heel of his hand on the breastbone at the center of the dummy's chest and using his body weight, pressed straight down by one-third of the chest depth at a pace of 110 chest compressions per minute. After thirty compressions, he tilted the dummy's head and pinched its nose shut. Sealing the dummy's mouth with his own, he blew steadily for a second. He repeated this until Sakura told him, "Okay, good, you've got the hang of that. Now onto some other first aid that you'll likely encounter in the field: where do the blood vessels of the rib cage run?"

"On the inferior edge of the ribs," Sasuke recited. He didn't know what to make of her blithe response. Yes, almost dying was part of being a ninja, but this was Sakura they were talking about.

"And this is important because…?" she egged him on.

"If someone has been stabbed through the ribs, knowing where the blood vessels lie is crucial in knowing how to staunch blood loss." His mind was still stuck. As she had pointed out, it was a part of their lifestyle and she had, not even a year ago, healed him from life-threatening injuries on the battlefield.

"If someone has received a blow to their abdomen, what are some of the first things you need to check for?"

"Damage to the liver and stomach. If stomach acid leaks into the body cavity it will cause a fairly quick death, whereas bleeding from the liver can be easy to miss and a slower killer but fatal nonetheless." He finally had a retort ready to go. He faced her and bluntly stated, "Sakura, you're a medic. Second clause of the rules that govern medic nin: 'no medic nin shall ever stand on the front lines.'"

Sakura looked at him with impatience. She ran her fingers through her hair in agitation, occasionally pulling out errant strands and flicking them to the side, and paced next to the dummy. He saw it in her eyes that she was getting irritated at him, and her voice was clipped the next time she spoke. "Yes, we're trained to stay back as long as we can, but not forever. Besides, the fourth clause states that those who have mastered Creation Rebirth are permitted to disregard the previous clauses, and I have. How do you treat shock?"

"If possible, lie the person down. Elevate the person's feet by a food, unless the head, neck, or back is injured or if their hip and leg bones are potentially broken. Perform CPR if needed, and treat obvious injuries. Keep them warm and comfortable."

"Good!" Sakura complimented him in an overly cheery and sugary voice as she moved away from him and towards her pack. She was still pulling on her hair and discarding loose strands onto the floor. That meant she was very annoyed with him. She was the type of person to try to cover up distress and anger with a smile, and as he learned years ago the more false cheeriness she projected the worse her rage and depression.

He hadn't meant to insult her; he was simply concerned, not that he thought she would appreciate hearing those concerns. What had Naruto said about dealing with Sakura when she was irritated? He vaguely recalled his blond teammate, while recounting anecdotes about Sakura's temper, advising giving their teammate the space to blow off some steam when her anger got the better of her, so Sasuke settled for dragging the dummy back into the corner of the room as Sakura rearranged her pack. He noted how there were faint lines on the ground indicating where the stand holding the dummy had stood for the last three months while she zipped up the largest compartment of her pack. The room was silent for a couple of minutes except for the sound of Sakura slamming something onto the table or her zipping up the pockets of her pack with a little too much force.

As she began to sling her bag over her right shoulder, he realized would need to say something soon before she left. Sasuke wasn't about to apologize for feeling protective about her, but to assuage her irritation he also needed to show he respected her strength. "I will not be able to train with you next Wednesday," he told her. Not an apology, but also not pressing their previous line of conversation.

"That's not next time, but the time after next time, yeah?" Sakura confirmed. Sasuke nodded. Sakura finally looked at him again and almost rolled her eyes. For someone who was imprisoned here, he didn't act like it. Though many things about him had changed, his arrogance and his unshakeable conviction in his outlook had not. The feisty part of her wanted to finish their previous line of conversation until she won; the sensible part of her knew to drop it. "You're really busy these days down in this cell, huh?"

"Kakashi will be here to discuss the council's verdict on my sentencing."

Oh, right. That. Naruto had recounted some of the meetings and discussions while they'd been out at Ichiruka and she remembered that things were swinging in Sasuke's favor, but the finer details escaped Sakura. "Ah. Well…good luck," she hedged, giving him a small smile. "Do you want to meet next Thursday instead?"

Sasuke nodded his head once. "See you then."

"See you then," she replied with a loud sigh. Bird-face let her out, and after she stepped out of the cell she partially turned around and gave Sasuke a wave. He waved back, and a few seconds later she was gone. He looked at the clock (3:52pm) and then up at the observation box, where he saw the tails of Ibiki's coat as the interrogation specialist left the space. Sasuke went over to the bookshelf and selected one of the textbooks Sakura had lent him. He opened to a random page, seeing but not comprehending and absorbing. Soon, he would be out of this place. An odd feeling rose through his stomach and chest and questions filled his head. Where would he go from here?

* * *

The next time he saw Sakura, she was back to smiling and laughing that laugh he liked, the one that sounded like carefree bells tinkling in the wind. "Hello Sasuke-kun!" she greeted him as she stepped into his room. He exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and the tension in his body that he hadn't realized he'd been carrying since the last time he saw her also released. Things were back to normal—well, as normal as they got between them.

Sakura pulled out a stack of notecards from her pack while humming a tune that he recognized from the radio the ANBU guards occasionally played. It was a song where the only thing he could catch was a woman singing _work work work work work_ in a leisurely voice. She kept humming for a few more seconds until she popped straight up with a sharp "Oh!"

She whipped around to look at Sasuke, who raised an eyebrow at her. "Before I forget, to confirm: next time I'll be seeing you is on Thursday?"

Sasuke nodded once in affirmation. Sakura smiled at him and resumed humming the song as she unbound the stack of notecards. "Okay, pop quiz time!" she chirped and dove into quizzing him on various facts pertinent to being a field medic. What is the average human resting heartrate, and at what point is an elevated resting heartrate worrying? (Answer: 60-80bpm, and 100bpm.) What is the proper procedure of injecting a patient using a syringe, and why? (Answer: overfill the syringe, turn it upside down, and push some of the liquid out until you reach the correct dosage; this is to get rid of any possible air bubbles in the syringe because injecting air bubbles into a patient's bloodstream will lead to death.) What is a test for unconsciousness? (Answer: the "Hand Drop Test" is the go-to for testing possible pseudocoma.)

As Sakura asked him question after question, Sasuke watched her. Her gaze flickered up to him now and then, but her focus was almost entirely on the notecards and helping him learn all the necessary information. She was the same as the girl he knew and she was so different. She'd always had the ability for intense concentration, but when they were children it came and went in spurts and was often applied towards the frivolous aspects of life. Then again, what he and others perceived as frivolous were the roots of her current position: the compassion, the caring of others' feelings, and the willingness to place others' well-being ahead of her own were traits she always had. The difference was that she had grown up and others had nurtured her strength, as evidenced by the purple diamond that was now on her forehead, instead of deriding her. The changes in her meant that their interactions for the past year had been completely different to what he'd imagined. During those years of exile, he'd thought of her, Naruto, and life in Konoha. He had his regrets, but he pushed them down because he had a clear purpose. But after speaking with Itachi one last time, those regrets came roaring back.

After the twelfth question, Sasuke decided to break the flow of their interaction. Why, he did not know, but something inside him was gnawing at him to clear the air with her. "Things are different between us," he stated.

It could've been what he asked or the soft tone to his voice, or it could've been the fact that it was a question phrased as a statement, but it made Sakura look up from the notecard in her hand. She half expected to see derision in his eyes, but she only saw confusion.

She smiled. "We've grown up."

Sasuke said nothing in response, but the look on his face conveyed that was not the answer he wanted. Sakura wasn't stupid; she knew what the elephant in the room was. She used to fawn over him, and at times he'd accepted her affections and other times he'd rejected her. As an adult, she wasn't tripping over him. She was his equal and they knew it, but questions still lingered over their new dynamic.

She gave him another smile, this one smaller, and looked up at the ceiling, in the middle of which the spider crouched. With a laugh, she admitted, "When we were kids, I thought that if I told you how I felt about you enough times, you'd start reciprocating. Except we're no longer the kids we used to be." The look on her face softened, and she decided to throw caution into the wind and admit to something so obvious that she had spent the last year trying to resist it. "That's not to say I don't love you. I still love you. That hasn't changed and it don't think it ever will." To her horror, her eyes began tearing up—what for, she didn't know why, blame it on sentimentality—and she kept looking up at the ceiling until the tears stopped growing. She dabbed the edges of her eyes with the end of her shirt; she would not cry here, not now. Not ever again. She turned her attention back onto Sasuke with a sigh. "But that doesn't mean I haven't thought that we'd be better off without you, or that I'm willing to sacrifice my life and who I am for you. Not too long ago, I would've done anything for you."

"Not long ago," Sasuke repeated. Another question phrased as a statement.

"Now…now, I can only do as much as the other person reciprocates." She smiled at no one in particular as she thought about the various relationships in her life and how they worked. She thought of how Naruto was like a brother to her; she thought of her renewed friendship with Ino; she thought of Tsunade-shishou's dedicated tutelage; she thought of her parents' enduring marriage. "Relationships, romantic and platonic, are hard and they require compromise. When one person does all the giving and the other does all the taking, that's not sustainable."

Sasuke's lips twitched. "That's not what happened between us."

She smiled. "You gave in your own way, and I know that. Naruto told me about how during the chuunin exams, you put yourself in harm's way to save me. It's just…you never cared much for connecting with people." She was babbling now, but she didn't know what else to do. Otherwise it'd be awkward silence, and anything was better than that. "Back then I kept trying, but I've learned that you can't force people into anything. So I stopped trying to force a connection with you."

Sasuke frowned a little. "And what of these past few months?"

Sakura's smile widened; whether because she was genuinely happy or because she was trying to cover up her distress, she did not know. "I've really enjoyed our time together these last few months," she told him honestly. "I feel like we've reached an understanding, and that maybe you respect me." She looked down at the stack of notecards and all she could feel was sadness for all the pain that she had put herself through for others' sake. For _his_ sake. She kept the tears at bay and looked back up at Sasuke. "I hope we're friends," she told him honestly. "I know that we've had our differences, but I hope that we can move on and have a healthy friendship."

He gave her an odd look and she wasn't sure what it meant. For several seconds, neither of them said anything. She was about to return to quizzing him when Sasuke cleared his throat. "Sakura?"

"Mm hmm?"

"That time in the Land of Iron—I—" Sasuke hesitated and looked to the wall behind Sakura's head. "I didn't mean to."

He didn't mean to what? Try to kill her? Then again, she couldn't recall him ever apologizing to people with words like "I'm sorry" that normal people used, so this was probably as good as it got. "I know," she told him with a shake of her head and a wry smile. "To be fair, I guess I had it coming since, you know, I was convinced that I could kill you for everyone's sake."

He knew this, he had been there, but it was still a shock to hear her say the words, to hear her admit… _that_. All he could do was nod his head.

Upon seeing Sasuke nod, Sakura exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding in. Had they just apologized to each other? Not quite; it was more like they reached a shared understanding of their past. She was fine with that, because she _had_ tried to kill him, but then again, it was for the greater good that she had.

After last time's heaviness, she'd come in today with a plan so that there'd be no time for distracting, depressing conversations, but Sasuke clearly had other ideas. She picked up the next notecard, but a question that had been nagging her all these months popped back up in her head. Given how today's conversation had already turned dark, there was nothing to lose. "Hey, Sasuke? Can I ask you something kind of personal?"

The hesitation in her voice was clear. He gave her a look, one that conveyed curiosity. Sakura took a deep breath and gathered her courage. "Why did you want to learn medical ninjutsu and healing techniques?" she asked. She already had an inkling as to what the answer would be, and it was one topic that neither she nor Naruto had broached with Sasuke since he'd come back. But if she didn't ask now, she might never get the chance to otherwise. She held her breath.

Sasuke looked away and towards the clock on the wall which displayed a time of "5:44" in bold, red numbers. Why had he? He shifted in his seat slightly, willing himself to answer Sakura's genuine and earnest question. Of all the people in the world, she was the one he trusted the most, not that she realized. He could trust her with his answer, he told himself. She still cared for him after all this time and all that had happened, and if he was going to be a part of normal life in Konoha, whatever that was, he needed to build the connections to others he'd forsaken in the past. After a long pause, he drew in a breath to steady himself to answer her query. "I feel like Itachi would've wanted me to."

Sakura exhaled a loud gush of air, causing her dark-haired companion to look at her with concern. "Generally speaking, breathing is recommended while having conversations," he remarked.

She ignored his sassy comment. "Why do you think Itachi would've wanted you to learn how to…heal?" she asked. She knew she was pushing her luck, but now that he'd started opening up she needed to take the chance.

Sasuke frowned, probably questioning what she was up to, but he didn't voice those concerns. Instead, he considered her question and tried his best to be honest. "Everything Itachi ever did was in service of other people," he murmured after an extended silence. "Everything he did was to protect the people and the village he loved. I think if he had been allowed to choose his own path, if he hadn't been pushed from such a young age, he would've chosen to become a medic nin."

"What happened between you and him, at the end?" she asked quietly.

Sasuke drew in a deep, shuddering breath. He didn't speak for a couple of minutes; a faraway look appeared in his eyes. Sakura knew from experience that she needed to wait patiently and that Sasuke would in return answer her question. As the seconds ticked by, Sakura was struck by how jaded Sasuke looked. He'd always held himself with dignity and maturity beyond his age, as children of trauma often do, but now she was never more aware of how he reminded her of Tsunade: young, beautiful features underscored by middle-aged weariness.

"He explained everything," Sasuke whispered. "And I finally understood the sacrifices he made."

"Do you regret fighting him?"

Sasuke's answer was swift. "Yes," he replied. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "There are a lot of things I regret."

Sakura knew she was treading further and further into dangerous territory, but some impulsive part of her pushed her to keep going. "What else do you regret?"

"A lot of things," he repeated. "I regret my path towards vengeance, I regret being twisted by Tobi and diverging from what Itachi wanted for me, I regret wanting to destroy Konoha, I regret not being able to see underneath the underneath."

Sakura watched him as he spoke and frowned. His regrets were quite vague—he'd repeated Kakashi-sensei's catchphrase to boot—and from her experience, vague regrets were usually insincere ones. The only specific one he had had to do with his deceased brother, whatever "diverging from what Itachi wanted for me" meant. And the thought of that made Sakura angry. She felt her anger jump from zero to a hundred within a couple of seconds. What excuse did he have for all the other pain and destruction he'd caused? He wasn't the only one in the world who'd experienced horrific loss, and if working with traumatized children at the hospital had taught Sakura one thing it was that people like Sasuke chose to articulate their grief and trauma in a very specific, violent way. He'd been willing to force peace and unapologetically kill anyone or thing that threatened his twisted idea of world peace. He had thought, with his typical pride and egoism, that he could single-handedly be their savior. Thank gods Naruto talked some sense into him.

After a long, awkward silence, she spoke again. "In the past, you've apologized for what you've done, and now you're acknowledging your regrets, which is good, but…don't you think you need to actually go out and _do_ things to make up for your mistakes? Apologies and acknowledging your regrets are a good start, but how are you going to show that you've changed?"

Ah. Clever girl—no, woman, he reminded himself. Though he didn't visibly react, he felt a weird unsettled sensation rising in his stomach. How was he going to respond to loaded questions like that?

"Sounds like you have some ideas."

Her frown deepened. "Not necessarily, but I know saying sorry and 'I have regrets' isn't enough. There's more to atonement than that," she replied, her tone curt and clipped. She looked away from him, not wanting him to see her tears. It _hurt_. In more ways than one, she was reminded of her fights with Makoto. Empty words of remorse followed by hollow promises of change, except that Sasuke, with his pride, would not even get to making fake promises.

"I know that," he replied, his tone harsh and hard. "I've spoken to Naruto and Kakashi extensively about this. I have a plan as to how I can be of service to Konoha, to 'show how I've changed.'"

Oh, so she was the last to know. Great, just like old times. "What is it then?" she asked him, her tone matching his in harshness.

He gave her a cold, hard stare. What he was about to say next wasn't easy for him to say and it wouldn't be easy for her to hear. "I'll travel around the world and help people and villages who need my aid," he answered slowly. "I'll be eyes and ears for Konoha abroad and help nip any issues in the bud."

Sakura felt the wind get sucked out of her sails and her mind went blank. "So you're picking up where Jiraiya left off," the words rolling slowly off of her tongue.

"Something like that. It's what Itachi would've wanted."

Hot tears welled up in her eyes. He was so _selfish_! Couldn't he see that after years away, what people needed was for him to be around? "And how is that atonement for how you've hurt others, especially the ones closest to you? Is this your way of running away from your guilt so you don't have to deal with the consequences of your actions and right your wrongs?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to reply, but before he could she cut him off. "I used to dream that after you got your revenge, you'd come home and chill the fuck out and learn to make others happy and to be happy. But now I see what complete and utter _bullshit_ that all was. You might not be living out some revenge fantasy now, but you're still wallowing in the past. And you know what? I think you've built your entire identity on that. I'm not sure you want to change and learn how to live in the present. Not when you're so self-righteous and self-centered. Not when you're unwilling to accept responsibility for your mistakes, deal with their consequences, and learn from them. It's always been about you and what you think is right. It's never been about righting wrongs." She didn't bother waiting for a response. She grabbed the notecards, chucked them into her pack, spun around, and marched straight towards the exit. Ram-face barely opened the energy barrier in time to let her out of the confinement area.

He wasn't sure what was going on, but his stomach and chest felt tight. He couldn't think clearly. What had just happened there? How was it that she was always able to speak so plainly about the things he kept hidden from himself? He looked up to the observational box, only to see Ibiki smirking down at him. There was a numbness tingling through the back of his neck. With a huff, he sat on his bed and put his head in his hand and thought about Sakura's sharp words. He knew that he'd done a lot of people wrong, and he felt guilty about it. Of course he did. He was still coming to terms with the bone-crushing remorse that followed him everywhere, from his waking moments to his dreams, but in particular when he was with her. Of course he had been thinking about how to absolve himself of his sins.

Her words rang in his ears. He was too self-righteous and self-centered to deal with the consequences and learn from his mistakes? He'd been locked up in this godforsaken prison for the past year; if that wasn't dealing with the consequences then what was it? He looked to the spider on the ceiling, which hadn't moved in a few days. Its body was twirling slightly as the ventilation draft blew past it. He knew he'd done a lot wrong and he had no problem admitting that. What did she mean by it was always about him? He was the one who was seeking forgiveness, after all.

His mind jumped to Sakura's selfless nature. Her career choice to become a medic and a doctor. Her current focus on healing traumatized children and preparing them for life in a world of peace. Her decision to kill him on her own so that others wouldn't be put in danger. Her regular visits to provide him instruction in medical ninjutsu because he had asked. Her whole life revolved around others. With a frown, he thought about how when Sakura healed her patients, she didn't do it for herself. She did it for them. In many ways—and he couldn't believe he was making this comparison—she reminded him of Itachi.

Sasuke glanced at the clock. 6:17pm. There was plenty of time between now and bedtime for him to think. He heard Sakura punching the elevator button rapidly, and without looking at him once, she stepped into the elevator and disappeared from sight.

As Sasuke suspected, Sakura was fuming; partly at Sasuke and his boneheaded ways, but also at herself. She was mad at Sasuke because of how mired in the past he was, how everything he did went back to his hero-worship of Itachi, and how he'd built his entire identity off of his deceased older brother, and mad at herself for thinking that Sasuke really was changing. Of course he wasn't. There was still that silly little girl in her who thought she could change Sasuke and that he'd change for her. But people didn't change unless they wanted to, and men certainly never changed for women.

As she left the building, she chose to focus on the beauty of Konoha that was before her. The rolling clouds, the twinkling sunset, and the bustling crowds crawling through lantern-lit, tortuous streets. She'd promised before that she was not going to let the past drag her down, that she was going to be strong to meet the present head-on, and that she was going to build towards a brighter future, and it was time she renewed that promise.

* * *

The first thing Kakashi saw when he stepped out of the elevator was the excessive number of ANBU guards present. He understood the precaution as he'd been appointed as the Sixth Hokage and it wouldn't be great if some captured missing-nin killed him within the walls of Interrogation, but really, it was unnecessary. For one thing, many of Sasuke's tricks were ones he'd taught that little punk ass or that they shared. For another, from what he'd heard from Ibiki and Tsunade, Sasuke's emotional investments meant he was as good as chained to Konoha now. Whether or not that the punk knew it or not was a different story, however.

And if all else failed, Tenzo was right behind him, breathing down his neck.

As he strolled past the various ANBU guards, he nodded to them but kept his eyes firmly on his book, and they nodded back. He'd trained many of them, and all of them would soon be under his command. "At ease," he commanded, flipping to a new page, which was not a necessary move given how he'd memorized every word of every _Icha Icha_ book a long time ago.

An ANBU operative wearing a ram mask opened the energy barrier and Kakashi entered Sasuke's cell while skimming the words on the page. Nothing particularly interesting jumped out at him, so he flickered to the next scene. Behind him, Tenzo and about half a dozen other ANBU entered as well. From where Kakashi was standing, it looked like Sasuke was sulking while sitting on his bed. Interesting, Kakashi thought. Ibiki told him that Sakura gave the punk the third degree the other day, but he hadn't realized that Sasuke would be so affected by it.

"Hello Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke looked up and gave him a cold stare. The room was silent save the faint thrumming noise the energy barrier produced.

"Good to see that your manners are as sharp as ever," Kakashi drawled, his lazy eyes still perusing his book.

"What do you want?"

"Now, is that really the way to talk to your poor old teacher?" Kakashi remarked coolly. "Besides, you know why I'm here: the council are close to making their decision."

The younger man grunted and said nothing else.

"How's Sakura-chan?"

If looks could kill, Sasuke's glare would have. Kakashi looked up from the pages of _Icha Icha Pooltime_. Ah, so this was a sore subject, he mused. She must've really rung his bell yesterday.

"Ibiki's been telling me the most interesting things about you and Sakura. Have you found her instruction useful?"

Sasuke stayed silent for a few seconds. "She's been very patient," he finally replied, keeping his facial expressions carefully schooled.

"Sakura's a good person like that; she puts her everything into nurturing others, even when they're trash and should probably be disposed of," Kakashi commented, flicking to a new page of his book. People didn't realize this, but he didn't keep his nose in written porn all day for nothing. Multitasking kept his skills, particularly observation and detection, as a ninja sharp. Right now, he could hear Tenzo's tense breathing, probably because the last time Tenzo fought Sasuke the younger man had ended up on top. With a quick glance at Sasuke, he could tell that the younger man felt guilty about the woman they'd been discussing. "Not that that's a pointed comment about you. Just a general observation."

Sasuke responded with a soft "Hn."

"So, onto why I'm really here: the council are close to making their decision." Sasuke was as apathetic as ever, seemingly careless about his future and freedom. His eyes flickered among Tenzo and the ANBU guards before resting on the title of Kakashi's reading material. He said nothing, causing Kakashi to sigh. "Thanks to the valuable input I and Naruto gave, the council is advising that we release you."

"Hn. That's good."

If Kakashi were less mature, he would've rolled his eyes or socked Sasuke in the jaw over the affected, practiced apathy the younger man was so careful about maintaining. Thankfully he was a dignified, appointed Sixth Hokage, so he knew better than to react to another's juvenile manners. "So now that the council's decided to release you, what are your plans?"

Sasuke was silent for a while. Kakashi didn't have anywhere to be, so he waited for an answer. After much consideration, Sasuke finally responded, "I plan on traveling and righting my wrongs."

Kakashi's brows furrowed slightly. The traveling plans had been discussed at length, and his impression was that Sasuke was still obsessed with this idea of 'protecting the world' that his deceased older brother had planted. Kakashi had no hard feelings towards dead Uchiha; in fact, they'd work together in ANBU and he had a healthy respect for that kid whose prodigiousness surpassed his own. But he really wished that the older brother had more carefully thought out the plans for the younger. But righting wrongs? What did that mean? It sounded like something Sakura would say, so Sakura's confrontation of Sasuke must've been quite something. Kakashi didn't think that this self-righteous, stuck up punk ass of an avenger would take her words so seriously so quickly. "Interesting choice. How'd you come to this conclusion?"

"I've had almost a year to reflect on what I've done in the previous five."

His own reflection? Kakashi continued to read his book with the utmost visible calm and nonchalance, but inwardly his anger rose. If he ever had a child, he'd pray to the gods that they wouldn't be a prodigy. Most prodigies, such as himself and the Uchiha standing across from him, ended up cocky, fucked up, and alone. "And what about your wrongs that concern Sakura?" Kakashi asked harshly. When Sasuke didn't respond, he frowned. "Some of your greatest wrongs have to do with your treatment of her. So: what are your plans there?"

Sasuke shifted his stance slightly, and Kakashi knew he had unsettled the boy. Looking away from _Icha Icha Pooltime_ , he looked straight into Sasuke's eyes. "Nothing?"

"…I don't know," Sasuke admitted.

"You better figure it out quick. You have a lot to make up for," Kakashi pointed out as he returned to his book.

Sasuke stayed silent, looking towards the empty observation box.

"And Sasuke?"

"Yes?"

"A piece of advice," Kakashi drawled as he flipped onto the next page. "Before you leave, you should tell her how you feel." When Sasuke didn't respond, Kakashi added, "About her."

Sasuke still didn't respond, only turned his head to watch his silver-haired superior. With an exasperated sigh, Kakashi looked up from his book again and made eye contact with his former pupil. "If you don't—"

"—she'll move on, probably with a Hyuuga. I'm well aware."

Kakashi raised his eyebrows. "Ah, so those rumors about her and Hyuuga Tokuma were true? I wasn't thinking that specifically, and she's still young so there's no telling who'll be her long-term partner, but yes. Even if you tell her, there's a nine in ten chance she'll move on. A one in ten chance is better than none though."

Sasuke's expression didn't change. "You're oddly interested in her love life," he noted.

Kakashi, who had been in the process of picking his book back up, looked at Sasuke sharply. He heard that tone, that insinuation. That little punk never had properly respected his elders. Kakashi reminded himself to take a deep breath because Sasuke's response was rooted in jealousy. That wasn't a good thing, but at least the younger man wasn't indifferent towards Sakura and had good instincts when it came to her. "I take my duties and responsibilities as a teacher and leader seriously, Sasuke," he drawled after a long silence between the two men. "Which includes seeing to the well-being, in all aspects, of my subordinates."

"Is there anything else?"

"Seeing to the well-being of my subordinates includes you, unfortunately," Kakashi continued. "We're quite alike, and I know how things turned out for me. Don't make the same mistakes I did."

"Anything else?" the younger man asked, impatience drawing his voice thin.

Kakashi picked up _Icha Icha Pooltime_ right from where he'd left off. "You should learn some manners. It wouldn't kill you. Ta-ta, Sasuke-kun, have a safe journey of redemption." He turned around and walked away, his attention fully back on his reading material. Tenzo gave Sasuke a glare before he followed Kakashi. The other ANBU guards shuffled out of the cell one by one, and Sasuke was left alone once more.

* * *

Next chapter: _Desperado_


End file.
